Ecuador will propose legislation to take over the operations of oil companies in the country unless the firms sign new contracts aimed at increasing state control over the sector, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Saturday.
The government wants foreign oil companies to give up their profit-sharing deals and sign new contracts under which they would become service providers, but negotiations over the new contracts are progressing slowly.
“Every day that passes, there are millions of dollars going to these companies that should be going to the Ecuadorean state,” Correa said during a televised address. “I’m out of patience. We are sending a bill to Congress that would allow for the expropriation of oil fields should the companies not want to sign the new contracts.”
Spain’s Repsol, Italy’s Eni, Chinese consortium Andes Petroleum and Brazil’s Petrobras operate in the Andean country, despite Correa’s ongoing spats with the private sector.
The leftist president says OPEC-member Ecuador needs to increase control over its own natural resources.
Correa has had a troubled relationship with private investors. He shocked the markets in 2008 by defaulting on US$3.2 billion in bonds and has sided with plaintiffs in the Amazon region of the country who are suing US oil company Chevron Corp for US$27 billion in environmental damages.
He has threatened to nullify an arbitration ruling against his government in its feud with the oil giant.
The push for state control over oil and minerals in Latin America is being spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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