Ecuador seeks Indian participation in oil sector

Tuesday, 18 January 2005, 20:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
NEW DELHI: Ecuador, one of Latin America's largest crude exporters, Tuesday invited Indian participation in hydrocarbon exploration and setting up a greenfield refinery in the country. "We will be offering 11 blocks for exploration in May," Ecuador Minister for Energy and Mines Eduardo Lopez Robayo said at the ongoing energy conference Petrotech 2005 here. Relying heavily on petroleum economy, Ecuador has sizeable areas of unexplored oil reserves besides proven reserves of 4.6 billion barrels in five major fields. Ecuador is seeking private investment to raise oil production to about 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2010 from over 500,000 bpd in 2003. Ecuador currently has three refineries with a combined capacity of 176,000 bpd and Robayo said the country is seeking participation for setting up a new refinery with an investment of $2.5 billion. "The new project would be a high conversion refinery with a capacity of 200,000 bpd. India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has shown interest in setting up this refinery. It will be a 100 percent private refinery. Anybody including India and China can come in," Robayo told reporters. ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the overseas arm of India's exploration major ONGC, has already bid for the stake of Canadian firm EnCana's assets in Amazon blocks 14, 17 and Tarapoa, with a combined output of 66,891 bpd. OVL is competing with PetroChina for the EnCana assets, estimated to be worth $1.5 billion. OVL has already acquired stakes in 12 countries, including Sudan, Russia and Iran as part of efforts to secure supplies. EnCana owns a 36.26 percent stake in a new 450,000 bpd heavy crude pipeline from the Amazon oil blocks to the Pacific coast, and has reserved space to ship more than 108,000 bpd. EnCana also owns 40 percent stake in oil block 15, operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp. Import-dependent India is also scheduled to sign an agreement of cooperation with Ecuador.
Source: IANS
siliconindia