UPDATE 1-Colombia approves Ecopetrol bond issue

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BOGOTA Oct 27 (Reuters) - Colombia's government on Wednesday authorized state oil firm Ecopetrol ECO.CN (EC.N) (ECP.TO) to issue bonds of up to 1 trillion pesos ($543 million) in the local market to fund its 2010 investment plan.

The finance ministry said the the bonds could be between three years and 30 years, would be peso-denominated and issued on the local market. The paper will be fixed and variable rates linked to inflation and the fixed-term deposit rate.

On Tuesday, Ecopetrol said third-quarter net earnings rose 42.7 percent to 1.7 trillion pesos ($924 million) compared with the same period last year. [ID:nN26178202]

Ecopetrol, Colombia's largest oil producer, has announced an ambitious $80 billion investment plan to boost its production to 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2020. [ID:nN29244035] (Reporting by Javier Mozzo, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)