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Ecuadorian president says Venezuela committed to refinery
(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Quito, Nov 30 (EFE).- Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said press reports that Venezuela was reconsidering its support for Refineria del Pacifico, a joint petrochemical project being undertaken by Quito and Caracas, were false.
"That's all false, don't believe the newspapers," Correa said Saturday.
Refineria del Pacifico, with the capacity to process 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, would allow Ecuador to meet domestic demand for gasoline and export the fuel, and the petrochemical complex would also produce urea, fertilizers and solvents.
Correa said the joint projects with Venezuela, the majority of them in the energy industry, were going "very well."
The Ecuadorian press published comments Saturday from Elogio Del Pino, vice president for exploration and production of Venezuelan state-owned oil giant PDVSA, that a number of foreign projects were being reviewed.
"International investments, such as the refineries in Ecuador and Nicaragua, are being evaluated," Del Pino said, adding that Venezuela was seeking "financing and a reduction in its participation" in the projects.
Petroecuador chief Luis Jaramillo, for his part, told Ecuadorian media that Quito would not halt the refinery's construction because it did not want to remain "condemned to continuing to subsidize petroleum derivatives."
He said that if Venezuela pulled out of the project, Petroecuador would present other options for financing the project to Correa.
"We have very good offers from China, Korea, Japan ... The project is not going down because Venezuela says no," Jaramillo said.
On July 15, Correa and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a joint venture agreement between Petroecuador and PDVSA, with one of the partnership's projects being construction of the refinery in Ecuador's Manabi province.
Refineria del Pacifico is expected to cost some $5 billion to build, and the joint venture agreement calls for Petroecuador to have a 51 percent stake in the project and PDVSA to own the remaining 49 percent.
Ecuador, the fifth-largest oil producer in Latin America, has output of some 550,000 bpd of crude, with some 55 percent of that production coming from state-owned Petroecuador and the rest from about a dozen foreign companies that operate in the Andean nation.
Oil is Ecuador's main export product and revenues from its sale finance about 35 percent of government spending. EFE
sm/hv
Copyright ? 2008 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.
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