Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol said on Dec. 14 it expects to invest between $3.5 billion and $4 billion next year.

The plan is meant to "reestablish a path of growth," the company said in a statement, and is predicated on a Brent price of $45/bbl.

Close to 80% of investment will be in projects located in Colombia, Ecopetrol said, with the remaining 20% principally earmarked for projects in the U.S. and Brazil.

"Some 77% of investment will be concentrated on exploration and production projects, focused on assets with the best strategic fit and profitability," the statement said.

Average production will be between 700,000 and 710,000 boe/d, the company said. Oil will make up 81% of that output and gas 19%.

Investment under the 2021 plan should enable average daily output of near 750,000 boe/d by 2023, Ecopetrol said.

Production in the third quarter was down to 681,000 boe/d, from 720,000 boe/d in the year-earlier period, because of lower demand during the coronavirus pandemic, the company said in October.

The company will perforate nine exploratory wells next year, it said, eight of them in Colombia.

More than $600 million of the investment budget will be spent to increase non-conventional activities in the United States' Permian Basin, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Ecopetrol will continue to investment in its non-conventional pilot project in Colombia's Valle Medio del Magdalena, which it has previously said will begin by the end of 2021.

Commercial production from non-conventional energy sources—including fracking for shale gas—is currently not permitted in Colombia and is the subject of an ongoing legal case in the country's top administrative court.

The court has upheld a temporary suspension of non-conventional exploration, but allowed pilot projects to move ahead.