User Services

Regional Presence

In addition to Ecopetrol's relationship strategies in the territory, through a diagnostic model, the Citizen Participation Office – OPC (for its acronym in Spanish) establishes the relevance of its regional presence and operating model according to the relevance of each municipality in the Company's business plan.

Currently, there is permanent face-to-face support, with fixed headquarters in 16 municipalities and, 23 municipalities are supported through mobile points and assistance brigades in 5 regions where Ecopetrol operates.

This deployment towards the regions implies having infrastructure plus human, locative, technological, and logistical resources to secure assistance to citizens in a permanent, transparent, and inclusive manner, thus becoming the first link to guarantee their right of access to information and citizen participation.

Support to citizens in the management of the right of petition (PQRS)(for its acronym in Spanish)

It consists in guaranteeing a timely and substantive response to all Petitions, Complaints, Claims and Suggestions – PQRS (for its acronym in Spanish) submitted to Ecopetrol. To this end, the procedure has been established for managing Ecopetrol's right of petition, conditions, competences, and other substantial and instrumental management and control aspects. This management is assessed with the indicator of timely assistance to citizens.

To ensure timely attention to PQRS (for its acronym in Spanish), there is a process and a network of approximately 220 solvers distributed in all areas of the company. This process is governed by the procedure for managing Ecopetrol's right to petition, which sets out the overarching conditions, the competence to respond, the stages of the process, and all other substantial and instrumental aspects that guarantee timely and adequate attention of citizen petitions.

In the last 5 years, approximately 222,924 citizen requests have been addressed. The indicator of timely attention to citizens in this period averaged 99.97% and 99.96% in 2023.
 

Graph. 2019 - 2023 Indicator of timely attention to citizens 

Source: Citizen Participation Office

Table. 2023 Indicator of timely attention to citizens by stakeholders

Source: Citizen Participation Office

Ecopetrol has mechanisms and channels to properly receive and manage Petitions, Complaints, Claims and Suggestions – PQRS (for its acronym in Spanish) as well as acknowledgments from the stakeholders, ensuring a timely and in-depth response.

Similarly, participation scenarios are created that allow stakeholders to be informed about the activities performed by the company and to learn about their perception so as to build a close relationship with the organization.

Through the management and monitoring of the PQRS and requirements derived from said interaction between Ecopetrol and its stakeholders, data is obtained that is then structured, analyzed, and converted into valuable information for decision-making purposes. This information allows Ecopetrol to identify opportunities for improvement in the organization's processes and build alternative solutions to situations of dissatisfaction.

The OPC's operational deployment model considers six care modalities through face-to-face and non-face-to-face channels, as follows:

The following are non-presential communication channels available to the Citizen Participation Office - OPC (for its acronym in Spanish):

The participation scenarios portfolio are pedagogical and methodological actions promoted by the Citizen Participation Office - OPC (for its acronym in Spanish), which purpose is: 1. Generate trust and certainty among stakeholders regarding Ecopetrol's management and operations within the framework of corporate legal, regulatory, and strategic requirements, and 2. Promote among the stakeholders skills, habits, and competencies that enable assertive relationships with the company, and strengthen the social fabric through implementation of interactive and pedagogical tools.  

With these 2 objectives, which are related to Ecopetrol's Strategy for Integrated Land Management, workshops, programs, and interactive experience routes have been created to develop 3 pillars of citizen participation and transparency:  

1. Comprehensive citizen support.  
2. Access to public information.  
3. Social control and accountability. 

These scenarios seek to promote knowledge about the industry, the company and its management, the generation of contents on energy transition, the socialization of relevant relationship aspects, environmental protection, listening to the needs and expectations of the stakeholders, disclosure of operational outcomes and projections, and strengthening citizen competencies. 

Included below are actions of the participation scenarios portfolio, by pillar:  

Each strategic line of the participation scenarios has specific products that have a thematic, methodological, and logistical development, which require technical and budget resources for their implementation. Within the framework of these lines, the OPC has consolidated experience and methodologies for the development of each of the activities proposed in the portfolio.  

Based on the portfolio and, considering the needs, particularities, and dynamics of each region, a strategic plan of participation scenarios is built every year, in line with Ecopetrol's relationships plan in the territories.  

Some of the most relevant scenarios of the portfolio are:  

'Protegiendo Mi Planeta' Program (Protecting My Planet): it is a scenario of constant engagement with the educational community in Ecopetrol's direct area of influence where, through didactic workshops, protective attitudes towards the environment are promoted among children and adolescents, as well as the knowledge of the actions taken by Ecopetrol to protect nature in performance of its processes as an industry. 

Building citizenship: Training program to strengthen skills for citizen participation, as a tool for assertive dialogue, with a culture of peace and coexistence. 

In 2023, within the framework of the participation scenarios portfolio programs, 375 participation spaces were held with 8,398 people, with the community being the main focus of these spaces. Detailed below are the programs conducted in 2023, showing the place of execution and the participants:

Table. 2023 Scenarios - Portfolio programs executed

Source: Citizen Participation Office

ECO Zone: Ecopetrol's Experience Center for dialogue, knowledge, and active transparency at the service of citizens.

A citizen service model was developed, incorporating appropriate processes so that, in addition to securing legal compliance and making the company's operations and projects viable, it contributes to strengthen relationships of trust and transparency with the stakeholders; this model is called ECO-Zone. 

Through the Zone for Encounter - Knowledge - Opportunities, Ecopetrol implements active transparency strategies for transforming information and contents created by the company in topics such as: science, innovation, environment, industry processes, knowledge of the territories, among others, so that stakeholders can build firm arguments vis-a-vis their own realities and understanding of the problems. 

The model arises from a basic diagnosis of the territory, the mapping of Ecopetrol's presence in the area, the identification of its own and the sector's good practices, and the analysis of the current processes promoted by the Citizen Participation Office - OPC (for its acronym in Spanish). In 2020, the strategic and operational model of the ECO-Zone was designed; in 2021, the first pilot was implemented in the Middle Magdalena region in Puerto Wilches (Santander); and between 2022 and 2023, the second ECO-Zone was planned for the Orinoquía region in Acacías (Meta). 

Balance

In the past 5 years, 1,276 activities were conducted in all the Company's regional offices, with the participation of 29,456 people, as shown in the following table:

Table. Participation scenarios by region 2019 to 2023

Source: Citizen Participation Office

Graph. Participation scenarios 2019 to 2023

Source: Citizen Participation Office

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