Ecopetrol delivered its first shipment of crude oil to South Korea
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Ecopetrol delivered its first shipment of crude oil to South Korea
Jan 5, 2021
- Currently, 49% of crude oil sales are destined for Asia, as part of a commercial diversification strategy.
- The company is also betting on ‘niche’ markets for Colombian oil in Sweden, Spain, Ivory Coast and Malaysia.
After 46 days at sea, the first shipment of Ecopetrol crude oil arrived in South Korea, which was sold and delivered directly by the company to one of the main private refiners in that Asian country, representing a new milestone in the company's commercial diversification.
The shipment, whose sale was closed last July, amounts to one million barrels of Ecopetrol Castilla Blend® / Vasconia Blend crude and was shipped directly from the Port of Coveñas to the Port of Daesan, located on the east coast of that Asian nation.
"This transaction is framed within the new commercial lines of Ecopetrol focused on offering comprehensive logistics schemes to our customers through a proactive management of risks, both price and operational", said Pedro Manrique, Vice President Commercial and marketing of Ecopetrol.
Ecopetrol has set out to position its crude at a global level by diversifying destinations and capturing new customers. While 12 years ago 90% of international crude oil sales were destined for the Gulf of Mexico (USA) and just 8% to Asia, today the proportion is 43% and 49%, respectively.
This diversification has been the result of a plan of investments made in the previous decade in order to adapt the maritime terminals and ensure the logistics required to serve large vessels that cover routes to Asia and at the same time generate savings in transport to more distant destinations.
Thus, in 2008 the first direct sale of crude oil to Asia was possible to the Chinese company Sinochem for 4 million barrels. Since then, long-term contracts have been signed with state-owned companies in India and private refiners in India, as well as direct sales to independent refineries located in China.
In addition, the commercial team of Ecopetrol has also bet on the positioning of crude produced in Colombia in niche markets to diversify the company's customers, which has allowed recent sales of crude to destinations such as Sweden, Spain and Ivory Coast.
This focus on capturing new customers and destinations, as well as long-term contracts signed with strategic customers, have been key to mitigating the impacts of low demand for crude and fuels this year due to the isolations caused by Covid-19.
