Ecuador shuts off oil pipeline amid unrest
AFP
QUITO
Petroleumworld.com 02 08 06
State-owned Petroecuador on Tuesday shut off an oil pipeline in
the Amazon basin after a group of locals took over a pumping station
to protest against US group Occidental Petroleum, a company spokesman
said.
The shutdown affects 380,000 barrels of crude oil pumped daily
to Balao, a port city near the Colombian border, the spokesman
said, adding that should the crisis last more than 12 hours, it
would cut into Ecuador's oil exports.
The unrest, he added, has not extended to a separate, private
oil pipeline in the same region with a 500,000 barrels per day
capacity.
The spokesman compared the situation to last August, when a similar
protest for two weeks stopped Ecuador's daily exports of 144,000
barrels of oil -- currently exports have increased to 355,000
barrels per day.
The official said some 60 inhabitants of Baeza, 75 kilometers
(47 miles) east of Quito, took over a Petroecuador pumping station
at midday (1700 GMT) to protest against Oxy's alleged stock selling
scam and to demand a greater share of the country's oil wealth.
Separately, Economy Minister Diego Borja on Tuesday announced
that all of Ecuador's contracts with foreign oil companies would
be revised to bring them in line with the recent upward shift
in world crude oil prices.
"The ministry is working on a proposal for the president
(Alfredo Palacio) to get some 600 million dollars in contract
renewals," Borja told reporters.
Ecuador is the fifth-largest oil producer in Latin America, with
around 530,000 barrels of crude extracted daily, of which around
355,000 are earmarked for export.
AFP
02/07/06
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© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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