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Colombia may sell Ecopetrol shares in New York, Martinez says
By Thomas Black and Jose Enrique Arrioja
Bloomberg
MEXICO CITY
Petroleumworld.com 09 12 06Colombia may offer some shares of state-owned oil company Ecopetrol SA on the New York Stock Exchange when it sells a 20 percent stake next year, said Energy Minister Hernan Martinez.
``If the Colombian capital market isn't sufficient to absorb this, then we could go to the New York exchange,'' Martinez, 65, said in an interview at an energy conference in Mexico City on Sept. 8.
Martinez said he expects congress to approve the share sale before the end of the year and said the government will select an investment bank to manage the transaction after winning that approval.
Armando Zamora, president of Colombia's National Hydrocarbon Agency, said in an interview last month that the 20 percent stake in Ecopetrol could take in between $2 billion and $5 billion. Martinez said he doubted that figure.
``I think there was either a misinterpretation or misinformation from one of our officials who gave this number,'' Martinez said. He declined to estimate how much the stake could be worth.
Bloomberg 11 09 06
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