Ecuador
lifts state of emergency as oil protests ease
AFP
QUITO
Petroleumworld.com
02 24 06
The Ecuadoran government has lifted a state of emergency in the
oil-rich Napo province after an agreement was reached ending four
days of protest which had cost the oil sector millions of dollars,
Interior Minister Alfredo Castillo told AFP Thursday.
"An agreement was reached Wednesday night that allows the
state of emergency in Napo to be lifted. I think the situation
is on the way to being resolved," Castillo said.
Ecuador's government had declared a state of emergency Wednesday
in the northeastern province where protestors had taken over oil
facilities demanding a bigger cut of the country's oil profits.
The government estimated the protests had cost 13 million dollars
a day to the oil industry.
Authorities had deployed troops, imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew
in the area, and 10 people were injured in related violence.
The interior minister said that all sides had agreed to form a
committee that would find a solution meeting the demands of Napo
authorities and residents.
A delegation from the Amazonian province was to meet Thursday
with the government to define agreements that would lead to suspension
of the protests.
"After 30 years of abandonment, we have longheld hopes: to
share in education and the maintenance of the Tena-Baeza road
that was destroyed," Heckel Ribadeneria, vice prefect of
Napo, said, explaining the reasons behind the protests.
Protestors had taken over the Sardinas pumping station that feeds
the area's Heavy Crude Pipeline (OCP), restricting oil flow and
causing damage estimated at millions of dollars a day.
The OCP delivers up to 450,000 barrels per day of oil from Amazon
oil fields to the Pacific Coast for the US-based Occidental Petroleum,
Spain's Repsol and Canada's Encana.
Another pipeline in the area delivers 380,000 bpd of oil for state-run
Petroecuador oil company. Flow in that pipeline was cut off Monday
for 23 hours.
Ecuador, with 532,000 barrels of oil extracted per day, is Latin
America's fifth-largest oil producer. Thirty-seven percent is
extracted by Petroecuador, the rest by private companies.
AFP
02 23 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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