New: Ecopetrol to Invest $80 Billion to Double Productio

Ecopetrol SA, Colombia's state-run oil company, plans to invest $80 billion through 2020 to more than double daily output to 1.3 million barrels of crude.

Colombia's largest company reiterated that it plans to produce 1 million barrels of oil daily in 2015, the Bogota-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.

Ecopetrol is expanding its search for oil in Colombia, Brazil, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Peru to meet its production goals. Last month, the company won rights to explore domestic blocks in a government auction.

Colombia aims to use its armed forces to help scout for new reserves of oil, the commander of the armed forces said in an interview July 12. South America's third-largest oil producer after Venezuela and Brazil is training a military unit to help perform seismic testing to locate potential reserves, General Freddy Padilla said.