About

Continuing to impress, the in-house team at Ecopetrol supremely manages the energy company’s legal business, demonstrating considerable skill given the Ecopetrol’s dominant market position in Latin America. Capably led by Fernán Ignacio Bejarano Arias, the company’s vice president legal, the team of 126 lawyers is made up of experts in the energy industry with a broad spectrum of focuses, constant commitment to furthering their knowledge and adapting to current legal issues and trends. The team has been a major part of the preparations and management of the company’s corporate restructuring completed in the last year. Ecopetrol is one of the largest companies in Colombia, with national coverage and a presence in more than 15 cities in the country. In addition, the legal team has responsibilities throughout the Ecopetrol Group and covers the entire value chain of the oil and gas business, which extends to more than 26 companies in the Group. Asked about the team’s most important achievements in the last year, Bejarano Arias highlights ‘the development of the implementation of the legal structure for Ecopetrol’s offshore exploration, after the drilling of the company’s first offshore exploratory well. [Also] the team’s participation in the international arbitration in the Reficar case, the dilution of several Colombian E&P assets, the implementation of a strategy to participate in the land restitution policies and the development of the Unconventional Industry and Unconventional Regulation in Colombia. [We worked on] the support of new business growth, the acquisition of new areas in our country and abroad, and the interconnection of Cartagena Refinery, among others’.