Colombia's Ecopetrol Names New CEO, Echeverry Resigns

Colombian state-run oil company Ecopetrol said its current vice-president, Felipe Bayon, will take over as chief executive, replacing Juan Carlos Echeverry.

Echeverry, who has headed the company since March 2015, through difficult times caused by the global fall in crude prices, has resigned for family reasons, Ecopetrol said in a statement to the Andean country's financial regulator.

Bayon, an engineer who spent 20 years working at BP PLC, will take over from Sept. 15, the company said. He has been a vice president at Ecopetrol since February 2016.

Echeverry told Reuters in an interview last week that the company will focus on exploring for unconventional deposits in the center and north of the country over the next few years in a bid to increase oil reserves.

Ecopetrol is Colombia's largest company and its top crude producer.

The government controls 88.49 percent of the firm.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Julia Symmes Cobb)