Ecuador to Invest $2 Billion in Oil Industry

Ecuador will invest U.S. $2 billion in its oil industry this year in a bid to increase production by 11 percent, said Energy Minister Galo Chiriboga.

Some $1.7 billion will be used to increase production at state oil company Petroecuador and another $300 million will be used to revamp the Esmeraldas refinery, Ecuador's largest, Chiriboga told Ecuador Inmediato radio. Ecuador is South America's fifth-largest oil producer and churns out an average of 510,000 barrels of crude a day. Chiriboga said Ecuador wants to increase this production by 11 percent this year with the investment. In a speech marking his first year in office, President Rafael Correa blamed Ecuador's 2.67 percent economic growth, one of the lowest rates in the region on a 9.8 percent decline in oil production. He said the slide was caused by his predecessor's failure to invest in the industry. Last year, Ecuador reactivated its membership in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which had been suspended since it stopped paying cartel dues in 1992.

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