BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s majority state-owned energy company Ecopetrol said on Friday it was in talks with U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum to possibly buy a stake in CrownRock.
Ecopetrol, in a statement, did not include additional details and added that a final decision on the size of the participation and the amount it could pay is subject to analysis.
Occidental decided to buy shale oil producer CrownRock in December in a $12 billion cash and stock deal that included debt.
In May, Occidental reaffirmed its plans to sell between $4.5 billion and $6 billion in assets within 18 months of closing the CrownRock purchase, which it said could be completed by August.
Shale oil production does not currently occur in Colombia, but Ecopetrol, the country’s largest company, has shale operations in the U.S. Permian Basin.
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Anthony Esposito)
