BOGOTA, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Colombia's majority state-owned oil company Ecopetrol on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter net profit that fell 38%from a year earlier, to just over $1.07 billion, with executives citing lower oil prices for the dip.

Net profit slid to 4.23 trillion pesos, from 6.85 trillion in the final quarter of 2022.

"The fact that we had a reduction in market price of $17 per barrel impacted net profit," said CEO Ricardo Roa at a press conference after the release of results.

Roa said the company would hold to its previously announced plan to invest between 23 trillion and 27 trillion pesos, up to $6.8 billion, this year.

"The investment plan for 2024 plans to maintain the historic levels of execution that we reached in 2023, with an emphasis in the energy transition," Roa said.

The company said it invested 27.2 trillion pesos last year, 97% of its goal and the highest in eight years.

The oil company's revenues also slid 12% to 34.79 trillion pesos, some $8.8 billion, it said in a filing.

The company said it had its highest output in eight years in 2023, reaching an average of 737,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, 3.8% more than the year before, noting a strong contribution from its stake in the United States' Permian Basin.

Its refineries also reached their highest-ever level, processing some 420,000 barrels per day, the statement said.

In a separate statement, Ecopetrol said its proven reserves were at 1.88 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2023, down from 2.07 billion at the close of 2022, and equivalent to about 7.6 years.

Of its reserves, 89% are in Colombia and 11% are in the United States, the company said.

Quarterly core earnings, as defined by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) slid 23% to 12.25 trillion pesos.

Annual net profit also fell, contracting by 42.9% last year to 19 trillion pesos, about $4.84 billion.

Revenues for 2023 were up 10.3% to 143 trillion pesos - $36.4 billion - while EBITDA was down 19.3% to 60.7 trillion pesos.

Ecopetrol said in a third statement it would distribute an ordinary dividend of 278 pesos per share, equivalent to a payout of 60% of its net profit.

(Reporting by Kylie Madry and Carlos Vargas, additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Sarah Morland and Marguerita Choy)