BOGOTA, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Colombian majority state-owned oil company Ecopetrol, reported a third-quarter net profit decline of 72% on Tuesday - 855 billion pesos ($224.2 million), compared with 3.01 trillion pesos in the period a year ago.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined 37% to 5.25 trillion pesos.

"The operational and financial results for third quarter of the year reflect a better price environment, the gradual reactivation of Ecopetrol Group's integrated value chain and the progressive effect of adjustment measures taken during the first semester of the year," Ecopetrol CEO Felipe Bayon said in a statement.

Before impairments, net profit came in at 873 billion pesos.

A better balance between supply and demand at a global level allowed for a significant recovery in the average price of Brent, Bayon said.

"This allowed a strong improvement in realized prices and higher volumes of sales of crude and fuels," he said.

Total sales in the third quarter fell to 12.32 trillion pesos, from 18.01 trillion pesos a year earlier, the company said.

Production in the third quarter fell to 681,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (bped), down from 720,000 bped in the year-earlier period, because of lower demand during the coronavirus pandemic, Ecopetrol said.

For the first nine months of the year production was 697,700 bped.

($1 = 3,812.82 Colombian pesos) (Reporting by Oliver Griffin, additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb Editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)