72% of the positions that have been replaced or substituted during this year have come from the organizational or administrative structure of people who have been in the company for many years and who have assumed those positions. There is an agreement with the Board of Directors understanding that some of their duties are among their duties there’s the possibility of assessing and evaluating that those positions at level one. And then we’ve decided to do screening processes and next placement. We’re placing directors who have the experience and the profiles and the skills, and they can participate in the screening process through a head or [indiscernible]. That’s what we’ve been doing, respecting the times for those positions and the succession line that exists within the policies associated to that process inside Ecopetrol.
Operator: We will continue with the question-and-answer session in English. Rodrigo Almeida from Banco Santander is online.
Rodrigo Almeida: Hi. Good morning, everyone. So I have two questions from my side. First, I wanted to discuss a little bit the capital allocation strategy of the company, and I guess particularly related to the hydrocarbons and reserves growth from the inorganic perspective. It seems like the company is getting good perspectives in Colombia itself, mostly gas focused, right? So I wanted to think about outside of Colombia and what’s the strategy there. I think this comes into the perspective that we’ve seen a lot of low carbon profile discoveries across the world. I think the last one that we saw is Namibia with Galp, talking about Venezuela also. But I wanted to get an international perspective here. If you could ring to us, what’s your priorities on the international side, Venezuela, U.S. and conventionals, Brazil offshore, offshore in other countries, I think would be great to understand.
And if you could give us a quick update on the exploration efforts in Brazil offshore also regarding Pau Brasil and Gato do Mato. If I’m not mistaken, you might have just started drilling in Pau Brasil and Gato do Mato was under review a couple of years ago. So I wanted to see where it stands. And this also, I mean, leverage is quite low if you adjust for CapEx. So I need to understand if you see space for inorganic growth there, especially outside of Colombia? And then the second point I wanted to ask you is, we talked a little bit about the lifting costs, so I wanted to check on the dilution costs, which went up a little bit. So now that we see production going a little bit up, I would say second quarter. How can we balance a higher production with probably lower naphtha prices that that could potentially benefit the dilution cost there also?
So that’s what I have from my side. Thank you.
María Catalina Escobar Hoyos: Rodrigo, good morning. This is María Catalina Escobar. Thank you very much for your questions. I am going to answer one part of the first question, and then I’ll give the floor to Alberto and Nicolas so they can continue giving more details in relation to the allocation of capital strategy, specifically with the business of hydrocarbons. I’d like to highlight two topics. Number one, we announced to the market that we have an investment plan for the following three years, 2024, ’25, and ’26. That’s more or less, reaches $20.2 billion. Our idea is to maintain annual investments between $5 billion and $7 billion. And online, with the strategy that we have up to 2024. The idea is that between 60% and 65% of that CapEx would be executed on hydrocarbons, on the line of hydrocarbons, prioritizing or giving a lot of relevance to this subject of the growth of the reserves of a company and making sure that those investments are done in a profitable way in the business group, looking for returns between 8% and 10% as we have announced.
Pursuant to what we have announced, specifically in the plan of 2024, but we are considering in relation to investments in the U.S. and Brazil of the $6.5 billion of the total plan for 2024, more or less $1 billion to round up the figures will be invested in the U.S., and $51 million is the capital we’ve allocated for investments in Brazil. The plan does not incorporate any resource up to date for assets in Venezuela. And if we evaluate or we have opportunities to do so, and if the conditions would enable a potential or a prospective investment, we would then do the appraisement according to our process of capital allocation if it’s — if we could or not allocate those resources. Now, Alberto, you have the floor.
Alberto Consuegra Granger: Rodrigo, thank you for your question. And now I’ll talk about Brazil. What are we doing in Brazil so far? Right now, we have three types of activities. The one, the first one is related to completing the seismic studies on the fields we have with Shell on the south facing of Santoz. That seismic work was already completed, and now we’re doing the evaluation process to determine the exploratory objectives. The second thing has to do with [indiscernible]. We’re ready to build the well. We are waiting for the resolution of an environmental strike in Brazil that is affecting some fields, especially ours. And the second one has to do with [indiscernible]. The idea is to have the idea of the sanction of the process either in the last quarter of this year or early next year.
Rodrigo Almeida: Could I just make a follow-up on this question, Maria Catalina regarding…
María Catalina Escobar Hoyos: Maria Catalina planning…
Rodrigo Almeida: Do you include any inorganic growth? Or if we do see M&A’s or anything related to that front, how do we — how can we connect that to the investment plan?
Nicolás Azcuénaga Ramírez: Rodrigo, good morning. This is Nicolás Azcuénaga. I’m the Vice President of Strategies and new business in relation to inorganic opportunities outside of Colombia. And in fact, as part of the systematic process of a review of the portfolio and analyzing options in all the different areas where we present, right now there’s nothing concrete. And if something could materialize and reach the maturity point required, we’d be informing the market. In relation to the cost of the service, the perspective of what we’re seeing is that we’re going to maintain the guidance of $12 to $13 per barrel. But with the interventions that we’re doing from the point of view of introducing efficiencies and the renegotiation of contracts related to maintenance activities, both on the surface and in the subsoil work.
Being able to see certain stability and inadequate management versus or trying to combat the high inflation we saw in former years. This allows us to see that we’re going to live through a period of certain stability, and we’re going to try to maintain the low range of $12 to $13 per barrel. That’s what we’re trying to maintain.
Rodrigo Almeida: And so regarding dilution cost?
Operator: [Indiscernible].
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, thanks for taking my questions. So my first would be regarding lifting costs. It came down this quarter sequentially. It has been kind of erratic, and I would be interested to understand how we can think of it going forward throughout this year. Also I would like to hear your comments about any progress to extend the Permian deal with OXY. And also another question would be in the downstream refining segment. We have been seeing solid margins. If you have any comments on how this could continue to behave for the remainder of the year.
Alberto Consuegra Granger: Matheus, good morning, and thank you for your question. Now in relation to the lifting, I would say the following in relation to the behavior. It varies, of course, because of the exogenous effect related to the exchange rate, the monitoring mass associated to the energy costs, maintenance on the surface and subs for labor costs, and costs allocated that monetary mass is stable remains stable. So in as much as we don’t have an exogenous effect, mainly of the exchange rate. And if we can control the levels of inflation that we are doing right now, we’ll see lifting cost that’s more stable. And that’s why I mentioned that we’re going to maintain that range between 12 and 13 and the goal is to be closer to the $12 per barrel floor in relation to the margins and the downsize.
