Posts Tagged ‘Quito’
Written by admin on 02 February 2012
Quito, Feb 2 (IANS/EFE) Ecuador has signed contracts for $1.7 billion in investment – the biggest to date in the country’s oil sector – to boost output at a pair of mature Amazon fields.
Non-Renewable Natural Resources Minister Wilson Pastor, speaking at a signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Quito, described the fields as Ecuador’s “crown jewel”.
The 15-year incremental production contracts with two consortiums are aimed at raising production by 16,600 barrels per day and increasing government revenues by nearly $3.53 billion.
The agreements cover the Shushufindi-Aguarico and Libertador-Atacapi fields, which are in decline and require new technology to improve output.
President Rafael Correa presided over the ceremony, in which Petroecuador head Marco Calvopina and the representatives of the two winning consortiums inked the deals.
Petroecuador will continue to operate and manage the fields, while the service contractors will receive a fixed price tariff for each incremental barrel produced.
The consortiums will only receive payment for production that exceeds the base curve established in their respective contracts.
The Shushufindi S.A. consortium, composed of oilfield services giant Schlumberger, Argentina’s Tecpetrol and US firm KKR, was awarded the contract for the Shushufindi-Aguarico field, which produced 110,000 barrels per day in 1992 and is still one of Ecuador’s largest.
The consortium will invest nearly $1.3 billion to raise production at that field from 43,000 bpd to 60,000 bpd and thus recover nearly 69 million barrels of crude.
The Pardaliservices S.A. consortium, which comprises Tecpetrol, Canada’s Canacol Energy, Schlumberger and Ecuador’s Sertecpet, will work the Libertador-Atacapi field.
Those companies will invest more than $380 million to lift output from 16,200 bpd to 16,400 bpd and recover more than 14 million barrels of oil.
Ecuador, the smallest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, currently produces some 500,000 barrels per day of crude, its main export product, but based on current reserves output will decline steadily after peaking in 2013.
–IANS/EFE
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Written by admin on 18 January 2012
Quito, Jan 18 (IANS/EFE) Ecuador has begun destroying 11 US bombs of World War II vintage that were found in 2010 by fishermen in the Galapagos Islands, the defense minister said.
The defense ministry delegate for the destruction of the Galapagos bombs, Xavier Drouet, told EFE that Monday they “successfully” blew up the first six bombs, and Tuesday would explode the other five.
Drouet said the Americans had a military base on Baltra island in the Galapagos, and these armaments were used for drills and exercises there during World War II.
Some 95 percent of the territory’s 8,000 sq. km constitutes a protected area that is home to more than 50 species of animals and birds found nowhere else on the planet.
The islands were made famous by 19th-century British naturalist Charles Darwin, whose observations of life on the islands contributed greatly to his theory of the evolution of species.
The bombs were found in October 2010, and since then they have been stored on Santa Cruz Island. Later the defense ministry decided to destroy them because they represent “a big risk for the inhabitants”, Drouet said.
Since the explosives belonged to the US, a group of Ecuadorian soldiers traveled to Oklahoma to be trained in how to dispose of the munitions.
The bombs are being detonated jointly by troops, police and firefighters in the uninhabited military zone of Baltra island, and “great care is being taken not to affect any Galapagos species” in the process.
Some 16,000 soldiers were based at Baltra, a strategic location for the American Army due to its position in the mid-Pacific Ocean.
The Galapagos Islands are located about 1,000 km west of the coast of continental Ecuador and were named the first World Natural Heritage Site in 1978.
–IANS/EFE
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Written by admin on 10 December 2011
Quito, Dec 10 (IANS/EFE) State oil company Petroecuador will deliver nearly $538 million worth of crude to PetroChina in 2012 in fulfillment of a cash-for-oil agreement, an executive with the Ecuadorian firm told EFE Friday.
Petroecuador is due to pay back a cash advance of $1 billion – released by the Chinese state-owned oil giant earlier this year as prepayment for future oil sales – in monthly installments of $44.8 million and will do so through oil shipments, Francisco Narvaez said.
Under a broader contract, Petroecuador pledged to provide PetroChina some 71 million barrels of oil – equivalent to $6.4 billion at current prices – over a period of 30 months, the executive said.
PetroChina will deduct from that total the $1 billion it pre-paid the Ecuadorian government. Finance Minister Patricio Rivera explained in February, when the accord was made public, that Ecuador also would pay back the amount of the cash advance at an interest rate of 7.08 percent.
Narvaez said Friday that Ecuador will pay back the cash advance in full by August 2013.
The crude shipments are valued on the basis of the market price at the time of delivery – equivalent to a differential of $11 or $12 in favour of Ecuadorian crude – and the Chinese company also will pay a ‘premium’ for ensured supplies, Narvaez said.
Ecuador shipped three-fourths of its oil to the US a few years ago, but China has since become the top importer of Ecuadorian crude. The Chinese government also has become Ecuador’s top lender.
In July, Petroecuador head Marco Calvopina announced another deal to export 130 million barrels of crude to PetroChina through 2017.
–IANS/EFE
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Written by admin on 21 October 2011
Quito, Oct 21 (IANS/EFE) About 54 percent of Ecuador’s oil exports in September went to China, state-owned Petroecuador said Thursday, adding that the remaining exports of crude went to Venezuela and Uruguay.
Ecuador had about 9 million barrels of crude available for export last month, said Petroecuador’s international sales manager, Nilsen Arias.
The Andean country is producing about 510,000 barrels per day of crude, Arias said.
The US imported about 75 percent of Ecuador’s crude until a few years ago, when fast-growing China started to expand its presence in South America.
China has provided Ecuador with about $7.8 billion in loans and up-front payments for crude since 2009.
Petroecuador has agreed to export 130 million barrels of crude to China over a six-year period as part of a deal linked to a $2 billion loan.
Oil is Ecuador’s No. 1 export product and the main source of revenue for the Andean nation.
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Written by admin on 08 October 2011
Quito (Ecuador), Oct 8 (IANS) Ecuador beat Venezuela 2-0 while Argentina thrashed Chile 4-1 in the opening matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Playing at home here in front of 40,000 enthusiastic fans, the Ecuadorian side took an early lead by Jaime Ayovi in the 14th minute and extended the lead in the 27th minute with Christian ‘Chucho’ Benitez finding the net.
The visitors never got back in control of the game after the second goal, Xinhua reported.
Ecuador qualified for the first time in the 2002 edition held in Japan and South Korea, and achieved the same feat four years later in Germany.
Venezuela, meanwhile, are still seeking to qualify for the World Cup for the first time and came to Quito upbeat of their chances.
Argentina won quite comfortably against Chile with Gonzalo Higuain scoring a hat-trick and Lionel Messi chipping in with one goal.
Results:
At Montevideo
Uruguay 4 (Suarez 4, Lugano 26, 72, Cavani 35), Bolivia 2 (Cardozo 18, Martins 88-pen)
At Quito
Ecuador 2 (Ayovi 15, Benitez 28), Venezuela 0
At Buenos Aires
Argentina 4 (Higuain 8, 51, 63, Messi 26), Chile 1 (Fernandez 60)
Tags: Ecuador, Quito
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Written by admin on 03 September 2011
Quito, Sep 3 (IANS/EFE) The toll from drinking toxic liquor in Ecuador has risen to 50 following the death of two more people, the health ministry said.
The ministry also said that a total of 244 cases of poisoning from drinking adulterated alcohol have now been confirmed, while another 355 patients remain on the list of possible poisoning victims.
As of Aug 25 the number of deaths from the toxic drink was 48, but Thursday one person was reported dead in the Andean province of Azuay and another in the Amazon province of Napo.
Fatalities from drinking liquor mixed with methanol were first detected on July 14, when 20 cases were reported in the southwestern coastal province of Los Rios.
The poisoning cases spread to other provinces, which prompted the government to declare a nationwide ‘state of emergency’ and to ban liquor consumption in a number of areas.
The center for the sale of adulterated alcohol was located in Guayas province and the product was found to have been marketed as ‘unbottled aguardiente’ and in containers of branded fruit liquors ‘but without health certification’, Deputy Health Minister Nicolas Jara said recently.
The latest ministry figures show that 14 cases of blindness from drinking the toxic liquor have also been reported, of whom three have died.
More than 15 brands of liquor have been banned by Ecuadorian health authorities, who have launched an operation to remove the adulterated alcohol from the market.
At the end of August a judge jailed the manager of the suspected bottling plant for the toxic liquor.
Some 50 people are also under investigation by federal prosecutors for marketing bottles of adulterated alcohol.
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