OPEC welcomes Ecuador back into the fold

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Gulf News

OPEC welcomes Ecuador back into the fold
By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter
Published: December 05, 2007, 14:24

Abu Dhabi: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) today welcomed back Ecuador to its fold after an absence of a decade and a half at the start of the day-long 146th Extraordinary meeting of the OPEC conference in Abu Dhabi.

OPEC President and UAE's Oil Minister Mohamed Bin Dhaen Al Hamli formally acknowledged the Ecuadorian delegation's presence at the conference headed by Guillermo Granja, undersecretary of hydrocarbons, representing Ecuador's Minister for mines and petroleum, Galo Chiriboga.

Ecuador joined OPEC in 1973 and decided to suspend its membership in December 1992.

The Latin American nation becomes OPEC's 13th member. OPEC controls 40 per cent of the world's oil production.
Chiriboga said on November 17 that he expects OPEC to give his country a production quota of about 530,000 barrels a day from January 2008.





Read more: http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Oil_and_Gas/10172580.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Ecuador's Correa Deepens Navy's Control of State Oil Company

Ecuador's Correa Deepens Navy's Control of State Oil Company

By Stephan Kueffner

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuador appointed Navy officers to lead the state-owned oil company's three biggest divisions, deepening the armed forces' control of PetroEcuador.

Patricio Goyes will run the production unit, Carlos Albuja will head refining, and Marco Salinas will oversee sales of oil and other fuels, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.

The personnel moves come after President Rafael Correa last week named a Navy admiral to run the company, which produces about half of the Andean country's roughly 500,000 barrels in daily output. He handed control to the military after a week of protests in the Amazon region shut some output.

Engineers have repaired most well heads and power generators damaged during the demonstrations, restoring output to near previous levels. Residents of the oil-rich region were demanding jobs, improvements to infrastructure and environmental cleanup.

``The intervention of troops and police allowed the mobilization of inspection and maintenance crews,'' PetroEcuador said today.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aO_VhxSob1ao&refer=latin_america

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. That's bizarre, and a bit worrying

Correa is himself an economist, and I'd have thought he'd be wary of giving control to people from a radically different background. How does the Navy prepare you for running a national oil company?

[Judi Lynn]

3. The article points out what other training they have:

Goyes was previously an executive vice president at PetroEcuador. Albuja and Salinas studied business administration while pursuing their military careers, today's statement said.
(snip)

[bemildred]

4. Not one trick ponies, are they? nt

[Judi Lynn]

5. Don't THINK so! They just might be expected to do a better job than Bush's Mike Brown.

"Good job, Brownie!"

[Demeter]

6. Yuh Think? ANYBODY Could Do a Better Job than Brownie!

If Brownie had had any intention of actually doing that job, I mean. HE was probably told to spin a good line of BS, throw fairy dust around, etc., but not actually, God forbid, DO something!

Why else would he whine back at Washington: "Can I come home, now?"

[Judi Lynn]

7. Right! Doing something would have involved spending money on Americans

which _Bush intends for his dirty friends to steal! DOing something, could have made the place liveable again for the citizens who called the town their home.



"Are you talking to me?"

[Demeter]

8. Spending Money on the WRONG KIND of Americans, No Less!

"Not our sort, don't you know?"


In other words, people like you and me and mine.