Ecopetrol S.A.

Good morning. My name is Natalia and I will be your operator today. Welcome to Ecopetrol's earnings conference call, in which we will discuss the main financial and operating results of the second quarter of 2026. There will be a questions and answer session at the end of the presentation. Before we begin, it is important to mention that the comments in this call by Ecopetrol's senior management include projections of the company's future performance. These projections do not constitute any commitment as to future results, nor do they take into account risks or uncertainties that could materialize. As a result, Ecopetrol assumes no responsibility in the event that future results are different from the projections shared on this conference call. The call will be led by Mr. Juan Carlos Hurtado. Acting CEO of Ecopetrol, Camilo Barco, CFO, and Carlos Mauricio Avila, Acting Executive Vice President of Hydrocarbons. Thank you for your attention. Mr. Hurtado, you may begin your conference.

Welcome to Ecopetrol Group's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. This is Juan Carlos Hurtado Parra, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ecopetrol Group During the second quarter, the Copetrol Group successfully capitalized on a favorable international crude oil and fuels market environment, supported by the strength of our integrated business model, differentiated commercial strategy, and disciplined operational execution. As a result, we delivered 40.2 trillion Colombian pesos in revenue. 17.7 trillion Colombian pesos in EBITDA and 6.1 trillion Colombian pesos in net income representing increases of 35, 59 and 235% respectively compared with the same period last year. These results reflect our ability to capture value across the entire value chain and were primarily driven by three factors. First, A favorable pricing environment with Brent averaging 97 USD per barrel and a strong recovery in international refining margins. Second, differentiated commercial management, which enabled us to improve our crude oil differentials by 3.67 USD per barrel compared to their first quarter, despite a challenging environment for heavy crude grades. And third, Strong operational execution in transportation and refining, with the latter making a significant contribution to value creation during the quarter. Regarding investments, we continue advancing according to plan. As of June, we had executed US$2.9 billion, maintaining our focus on production, energy security, strategic infrastructure, and energy transition projects. That support the group's competitiveness and future growth. Additionally, during the first half of the year, we complied with the dividend payment schedule approved by the General Shareholders Meeting, reaffirming our commitment to the value creation for all shareholders. With respect to the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund, during the quarter we received 1 trillion Colombian pesos statement corresponding to the accrual of the second quarter of 2025. Furthermore, higher international prices resulted in an accumulation of approximately 6 trillion Colombian pesos during the first half of 2026, the management of which we will continue to pursue with the national government. Let us now move to the next slide to review the key operational highlights of this quarter. From an operational standpoint, we continue advancing our strategic priorities and strengthening the capabilities that support the group's sustainable growth. In exploration, we drilled three wells during the quarter, bringing the total to eight wells during the first half of the year. We highlight the progress at Copua Sub 1, at the offshore Caribbean, and following the quarters closed, the Sandia 1 discovery. These milestones continue strengthening the region's gas potential and enhance the group's resource incorporation outlook. On the inorganic road front, We advance with the process related to Brava Energia following the authorization granted by Securities and Exchange Commission, CVM of Brazil, to assume the public tender offer. We will communicate this to the market and the decisions in due course. In commercial activities, we continue strengthening our international platform through market expansion, the onboarding of new customers, and the development of trading capabilities. In our gas and energy transition business, we continued contributing to the country's energy security. As the Ecopetrol Group, we supply approximately 62% of Colombia's natural gas demand. While continuing to develop solutions to expand supply availability for the market, in 2026 we have offered 293 GBTUD of firm long-term natural gas. Meanwhile, the transmission and toll roads business maintained positive momentum, securing new contract awards totaling US$428 million, strengthening the growth and value creation of ESA and its subsidiaries. In production, we reached The most significant was a 76-day blockade that impacted operations in fields located in the Meta department and delayed the execution of key projects aimed at expanding processing facility capacity. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we are implementing specific actions to recover these volumes. We also continue to closely monitor risks associated with the operational and weather conditions, including the potential impact of the El Niño phenomenon. In transportation, volumes transported increased by 4% compared with the same quarter last year, driven by the optimization of logistics corridors and higher deliveries of refined products. Finally, in refining, we achieved the highest quarterly throughput in our history, reaching 439,000 barrels per day, Thank you Juan Carlos. Our second quarter All of these underpinned by rigorous financial and capital discipline. During the quarter, the Copetrol Group generated EBITDA of 17.7 trillion col. pesos, representing a 59% increase compared to the second quarter of 2025. With an EBITDA margin of 44%, approximately 6 percentage points higher than the same period last year This performance was driven by the outstanding contribution from the refining segment which delivered record margins and throughput levels for the second quarter In addition, higher transportation volumes and defective commercial management enabled us to capture market opportunities more effectively As a result, we continued strengthening our financial position The gross debt to EBITDA ratio closed at two times at the group level and 1.3 times excluding ISA's debt, while interest coverage maintained its favorable trend relative to the previous quarter. By the end of the first half of the year, we executed US$2.9 billion in organic investments, in line with our plan. Investments were primarily allocated to Colombia, which accounted for 71% 22% and the United States and other countries 7%. This level of execution reflects a disciplined capital allocation strategy focused on high-value projects, operational continuity and profitable growth while preserving the group's financial flexibility. By business segment, approximately 63% of investments were allocated to hydrocarbons Followed by Transmission and Toll Roads with 29% and Energy Transition Initiatives 8%. Efficiency gains continue to be a structural driver of value creation, contributing 2.6 trillion pesos during the first half of 2026, the highest level recorded for this period. Of this amount, 63% positively impacted Evita, 20% CAPEX and the remaining 17% working capital. Let us now move to the next slide. As of the end of the first half of 2026, the Copetrol Group reported net income of 9 trillion Colombian pesos, matching in just six months the net income generated during all of 2025. The year-over-year variation in net income is primarily explained by three factors. First, market-related factors contributed a positive net effect of 5.6 trillion Colombian pesos, supported by effective commercial execution that allowed us to capture the benefits of this favorable price environment. The increase in the average rent price from 71 to 88 US dollars per barrel, together with the net effect of crude and product differentials, Thank you for watching. mainly explained by the income tax surcharge which increased from 0% in 2025 to 10% in 2026 in line with the Brent price outlook for this year as well as the recognition of the new wealth tax. Third, financial and other factors had a net negative impact of 300 billion Colombian pesos primarily associated with a liquidity management transaction related to tax credits. During the second quarter of 2026 Net income maintained its upward trend and reached 6.1 trillion Colombian pesos, equivalent to 3.4 times the level reported in the same period of the previous year and the highest quarterly result recorded since the fourth quarter of 2022. Let us now move to the next slide. As of June 2026, the Acopetrol Group reported a consolidated cash position of 11.3 trillion pesos, maintaining strong financial capacity to support operations, Thank you for your attention. 8.4 trillion pesos, mainly associated with capital expenditures at Ecopetrol S.A., Brazil, ESA and Permian Basin. As a result, the group generated 6 trillion COP in free cash flow, demonstrating the business ability to sustainably fund its growth. Among the main cash outflows during the period were 6 trillion pesos in dividend payments, both to Ecopetrol shareholders and to non-controlling interests in subsidiaries. Additionally, net cash flow from financing activities and other items amounted to 1.1 trillion pesos, primarily related to debt service payments. Regarding the fuel price stabilization funds, as of June 2026, the outstanding receivable stood at 8 trillion pesos. These balance includes approximately 2 trillion corresponding to 2025 and an accrual of 6 trillion during 2026. By company, 79% of the balance corresponds to Ecopetrol, and the remaining 21% to the Cartagena Rim winery. By year-end 2026, we estimate that the FEPEC receivable balance will range between 8 trillion and 12 trillion pesos, subject primarily to the evolution of Brent prices and exchange rates. During the second quarter of 2026, we continued strengthening our financial position through active liquidity management. These included the offsetting of tax credits totaling 3.3 trillion Colombian pesos and the movement of funds within the group amounting to 716 million US dollars, initiatives that contributed to optimizing liquidity and enhancing the company's financial flexibility. Let us now move to the next slide. Thank you, Camilo. Let us now continue with the hydrocarbon segment. In exploration, we continue to execute our activities in line with the plan. Today, we are pleased to share very positive news for Colombia regarding the Sandia 1 well located in the Colombian Caribbean offshore. But by the end of the first half of the year, we had drilled eight exploratory wells, resulting in two successful discoveries. In March, we announced the discovery of the Copo Azul 1 well located in the Guajira Offshore 0 block. Today we can confirm that during initial testing, the well reached a maximum rate of 35 million cubic feet per day, constrained by the maximum capacity of the testing facilities. Vivita Sur 1 ST2, located in the Janos 123 E&P contract, and operated by Geopark with a 50% interest in partnership with our subsidiary HOKOL which holds the remaining 50% was rapidly brought into production after being incorporated into the commercial area of the Saltador discovery. As I mentioned at the beginning, together with our partner Petrobras, we have announced the discovery of the Sandia 1 well located at the Guajira offshore zero block. This discovery further expands the area's gas resource potential. Regarding the series project, contracts were signed with our subsidiary HOCO for the engineering and permitting of the gas processing facilities in Ballena. We also made significant progress in the prior consultation process with 120 certified communities. These milestones allow us to maintain the planned schedule for filing the environmental impact assessment during the first quarter of 2027. In the Llanos foothills, we completed the drilling of Floreña N18Y ST1, reaching the target depth in June. We are now evaluating the zones of interest to assess their potential. During the quarter, we also filed environmental impact assessments for the Tinamu, Magnus and Chimera discoveries located in the CP09 block as we continue advancing these resources towards potential further development phases. Let us go to the next slide, please. Going into further detail, together with Petrobras, we confirmed a new natural gas discovery with the drilling of the Sandia I well in the Guajira offshore zero block, located 42 km off the Colombian coast and reaching a total depth of 5,440 m. Located 18 km from Sirius and 9 km from Copo Azul, this discovery confirms the gas potential of the Colombian offshore and strengthens the prospects of adding resources that could contribute to energy security in Colombia and the region. Following the completion of drilling and after reaching the target depth on 29 July 2026, we are now evaluating the gas-faring intervals. to characterize the discovery and estimate its resource potential. Next slide, please. In production, I would like to highlight the stock profitability of our portfolio with margins about 40% of 9 percentage points compared to the same quarter last year. A favorable realized prices and the sale of crude oil cargoes in transit, which helped offset lower production volumes. During the first half of the year, Production averaged 713,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. This result was mainly impacted by external events, including disruptions to surface operations in the meta-department and power supply events at strategic growth assets such as CPO09, Chichimene, Castilla and Rubiales. In particular, temporary restrictions at CPO09, Castilla and Chichimene resulted in deferred production of up to 23,000 barrels per day. Operations are currently progressing toward a gradual stabilization. Our gas business and international production performed in line with expectations providing stability and diversification to our portfolio. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we are implementing concrete actions to restore production growth and strengthen value generation. These actions include 1. Accelerating activity in the Permian, with an additional 7-well campaign in the Delaware Basin. 2. Bringing the Lyria Wiser 10 development well in the Janus Fort Hills into production. While maintaining production levels at Gibraltar 3. Implementing a comprehensive production assurance plan focused on enhanced recovery, additional drilling campaigns, particularly in Caño Sur, increased work-over activity and the expansion of production facilities at Castilla 4. Evaluating inorganic opportunities that complement our growth strategy and strengthen the long-term sustainability of our portfolio While we continue to monitor external factors, including weather conditions associated with the El Nido phenomenon and other elements of the operating environment, the actions underway support our outlook for a gradual production, recovery and strong cash generation through the second half of the year. Next slide, please. In refining, we delivered one of our strongest quarters in recent years, achieving a record integrated throughput of 439,000 barrels per day and a refining gross margin of 29.8 USD per barrel, compared with 12.5 USD per barrel in the same period last year. This performance demonstrates our ability to capture favourable conditions through outstanding operational execution, high plant availability and operational flexibility. These factors enabled us to strengthen Colombia's energy supply while reducing import requirements. At the Barrancada de Reveja refinery, we achieved record throughput and refining gross margins. Meanwhile, the Cartagena refinery increased throughput compared with the previous quarter and reached a record gross margin of 31.6 soles per barrel, supported by greater operational stability and the completion of major maintenance activities in key units. We also continued to expand our sources of value creation by developing new markets for coke and surfer. In petrochemicals, performance was supported by higher polypropylene sales and favourable commercial conditions across strategic markets. Looking ahead, we remain focused on the disciplined execution of major maintenance activities, preserving asset reliability and prioritising initiatives that strengthen competitiveness, efficiency and sustainable cash flow generation. Turning now to the midstream segment, it continued to reinforce its role as a key enabler of our integrated business model, transporting more than 1.1 million barrels per day, an increase of 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year, supported by our commercial and operational flexibility, which enabled us to incorporate new volumes, transporting imported crude and optimized logistics corridors and inventories, thereby offsetting lower domestic production. These results reflect the segment's ability to maximize the utilization of existing infrastructure and respond quickly to the system's requirements. Key achievements included the optimization of strategic routes and enhanced logistics capabilities to supply our refineries and Colombia's domestic fuel market. Overall, the segment demonstrated strong operational resilience and efficient execution, contributing to the continuity of the integrated business, value capture across the chain, and the competitiveness of the group. Next slide, please. What do we have in terms of profitability and costs? During the first half of 2026, the hydrocarbon segment continued to improve its profitability through the disciplined execution of operational efficiency and optimization initiatives, consolidating a more competitive and resilient cost structure. This performance resulted in EBITDA of 25.7 trillion Pesos, representing a 26% increase compared to the first half of 2025. While the EBITDA margin expanded from 38% to 45%. These results further consolidate the positive shift in our cost performance that began to emerge in 2025. During that period, we delivered 1.3 trillion pesos in efficiency gains through operational optimisation, energy management, water management, enhanced recovery and the new technology. Moreover, when excluding the foreign exchange effect, our cost indicators show even greater improvements. These confirms that the progress achieved reflects structural efficiency measures rather than short-term factors. In terms of costs, compared with the first half of the year, lifting costs and refining cash costs increased by 3% and 4% in Colombian peso terms, respectively. Meanwhile, the transportation cost per barrel increased by 8%, mainly due to the additional requirements related to emergency response and external operating conditions. Overall, these results demonstrate the ability of the hydrocarbons segments to absorb inflationary pressures and partially offset the impacts of lower productions caused by external events as well as higher labour costs. This was achieved through structural efficiency measures that support margin expansion and the long-term sustainability of our results. I will now hand it over to Juan Carlos who will discuss the key highlights of the energies for the transition segment. Thank you, Carlos Mauricio. During the second quarter of 2026, the Ecopetrol Group reaffirmed its role as a key contributor to Colombia's energy security. We currently supply approximately 62% of the country's natural gas demand, and year-to-date we have offered 293 dbt UED of long-term firm gas supply, consolidating our position as the market's leading supplier. At the same time, we maintain an LPG supply equivalent to 38% of the national demand and continued advancing strategic projects that will strengthen the competitiveness of our growth of our gas business. On the Pacific coast, the Buenaventura regasification project reached 73% completion as of June and it is expected to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2026 with a capacity of 60 GDT-UD. In parallel, we continue progressing through the competitive process to contract LNG supply, supporting the long-term marketing of imported gas. On the Caribbean coast, we signed the Charter Agreement for the floating storage and regasification unit at Puerto Bahia. With an operational capacity of up to 500 million cubic feet per day, the commercialization process for the domestic market is underway and startup is expected in the first quarter of 2027. Next slide please. As a part of our commitment to securing Colombia's natural gas supply during the contingency associated with the specs maintenance outage, The Co-patrol implemented coordinated and planned actions across the group that enabled us to deliver an additional 97 GBTUT to the market, helping meet essential demand and support the thermal power generation sector. Next slide, please. We maintained a reliable energy matrix and an increasingly robust renewable energy portfolio. During the quarter, we covered approximately 90% of the group's energy demand. Through self-generation and power supply contracts, maintaining competitive costs and generating significant efficiencies for the business, we continued strengthening our self-generation capacity through the startup of Thermocoa and the restoration of the Thermocusiana generation system. In addition, we consolidated our position as the country's largest renewable energy self-generator, reaching a portfolio of 951 megawatts. Among the quarter's main achievements where the startup of the Kifar Solar Farm continued progress on the Winpachi wind project and the acquisition of 49% stake in the JK1 and JK2 wind projects. These initiatives strengthen our long-term growth portfolio and support a responsible energy transition. In terms of energy efficiency, the quarter delivered 1.6 petajoules toward the annual target of 3.14 petajoules Bringing cumulative savings since 2018 to 26.4 petajoules. These initiatives generated efficiencies of approximately 48.5 billion pesos, reducing consumption, lowering exposure to sport market prices, and freeing up additional gas to the market. Given the high probability of an El Nido weather event during the second half of the year, we have implemented a comprehensive plan aimed at strengthening the group's operational resilience and contributing to the country's energy security. This plan includes increasing the availability of gas and fuels to support national demand, leveraging nearly two gigawatts of self-generation and renewable energy capacity, advancing energy efficiency initiatives and ensuring responsible water resource management. It also incorporates preventive measures to mitigate risk associated with wildfires and other climate-related events that could affect our operations. Through these actions, we continue strengthening the reliability of the national energy system while reaffirming our commitment to sustainable value creation for our shareholders and to a responsible energy transition. Next slide for our closing remarks. During the second quarter, we demonstrated the Copetrol Group's ability to translate exceptional market conditions into outstanding results. The combination of favourable prices, differentiated commercial approach and disciplined operational execution enabled us to deliver one of our strongest financial performances in recent years. We find it was one of the key value drivers in this quarter. We achieved record throughput and margins Thank you very much. Thank you. and a portfolio of opportunities that positions us well to deliver on our 2026 objectives. Finally, I would like to highlight that these results were made possible by the commitment and talent of our people. We are proud that the latest workplace climate assessment conducted under the international standard of the Great Place to Work Institute reflected significant progress, with our score improving from 77 points from 68 in 2025 and our rating rising from very satisfactory to outstanding. For the second consecutive year, we reached the target set by the Great Place to Work Institute, a recognition that reflects a culture built in trust, respect, fairness, and the priority belonging to Ecopetrol. With that, we will now open the floor for the Q&A session.

Thank you very much.