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Ecuador, under the Lenin Moreno administration, has been eager to attract private international investments. Therefore, they're auctioning off oil blocks to entice buyers to increase their oil production.
Peru and Ecuador have started discussions to explore two oilfields in the border of the two South American countries. The talks also aim to negotiate the extraction of natural gas on Peruvian soil by the Ecuadorean national state company Petroamazonas, said Ecuadorean Minister of Energy and Non-renewable Natural Resources, Carlos Perez Thursday.
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Ecuador, under the Lenin Moreno administration, has been eager to attract private international investments, therefore they're auctioning off oil blocks to entice buyers to increase their oil production.
"We are already talking with Peru to develop those fields and where an alliance could be made between (state-owned) Petroamazonas and Petroperu, plus a private company that puts the capital in and develops those fields," said Perez.
The oil produced in the border oilfields would go to the refinery in Talara (Peru), meanwhile, the natural gas produced in Peru would be exported to Ecuador to alleviate the deficit that the country has experienced. "Ecuador, for national interest, obviously wants to have the option of being able to increase production and that will be our plan moving forward" said Perez.
Recently Ecuador has amended its oil contracts, allowing operators to export independently, giving oil companies more participation in the production. The companies could sell part of the oil, in a neoliberal way to attract higher private investments, therefore increasing the importance of oil in Ecuador's economy.
In late 2014, former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa declared the South American nation, "no longer an oil-dependent country." Correa said that, "It is a lie that oil revenues finance the construction of roads, hospitals, and education centers, but rather it is due to the successful renegotiation of external debt, efficient tax collection and the renegotiation of oil contracts." Correa stated in his weekly address in November 2014.
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