Ecuador
resumes oil exports after protest
AFP
QUITO
Petroleumworld.com
02 23 06
Ecuador Tuesday resumed exporting crude oil, a day after protesters
damaged a pumping station in the Amazon, causing an 11 million
dollar loss in oil sales, Petroecuador oil company said.
Crude oil began loading on ships in the northeastern port of Balao
at 2100 GMT, the state run firm said in a statement.
Damages to installations in the Amazonian province of Napo forced
Petroecuador to shut down its main pipeline early Monday, after
protesters occupied a pumping station and briefly took a group
of technicians hostage.
The pipeline ships 380,000 barrels a day from the Amazon to Balao,
near the Colombian border.
The protest stopped the export of 275,000 barrels of crude, "causing
the country a loss of 11 million dollars," the Petroecuador
statement said.
Oil installations in eastern Ecuador have come under pressure
from local inhabitants who demand a crackdown on alleged corruption
by big oil companies and a greater share of the country's oil
wealth.
A similar protest last August stopped Ecuador's daily exports
of crude oil for two weeks.
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 21 06
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© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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