Ecopetrol SA (EC, ECOPETROL.BO), Colombia 's state-owned oil company, plans to increase oil production to up to 750,000 barrels a day in 2011, Chief Executive Javier Gutierrez Pemberthy said Monday.

The company, which produced 580,000 barrels a day in the second quarter, expects to increase production from several of its existing fields, while also nearly doubling production from the assets in Colombia it recently purchased from BP Plc.

"For next year, we will continue increasing production in areas where we are focused today," Pemberthy told Dow Jones Newswires.

The assets purchased from BP currently produce about 27,000 barrels a day, and Ecopetrol expects to increase that to 50,000 barrels a day over the next five years.

Ecopetrol expects to produce 615,000 to 620,000 barrels a day by the end of 2010, Pemberthy said.

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