OREANDA-NEWS. Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC; TSX: ECP) informs that in compliance with what has been requested by the Financial Superintendency of Colombia, in an official communication dated January 24, 2014, the company takes this opportunity to state the following:

A contract of partnership for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Quifa field, whose operator is Meta Petroleum, was signed between Ecopetrol S.A. and Meta Petroleum Corp (an affiliate of Pacific Rubiales).

In the development of said contract, the parties agreed on the execution of a pilot project using STAR (Synchronized Thermal Additional Recovery) technology.

The pilot project is in an experimental phase. Until the evaluation is completed and it is possible to ascertain whether the technology has proven to be suitable and successful in technical, environmental and economic terms, Ecopetrol S.A. cannot make definitive pronouncements regarding the success or failure of the aforementioned technology.

Meta Petroleum, in the exercise of its function as operator of the pilot project, reported to Ecopetrol on the occurrence of two operational incidents at the Quifa IV-1 and Quifa 137-d wells, which are part of the group of wells in the pilot project.