Ecuador president imposes oil nationalization law

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ecuador president imposes oil nationalization law
July 24, 2010, 5:48PM

President Rafael Correa announced Saturday that he will enact a change to Ecuador's hydrocarbons law allowing the government to nationalize oil fields if a private operator doesn't comply with local laws.

The law will go into effect Monday without the approval of the National Assembly because lawmakers failed to meet the time limit set to decide the bill's fate, Correa said.

Lawmakers called a last-minute session before the midnight Sunday deadline, but the president said he would not recognize the meeting because it was not called with sufficient anticipation.

Ecuadorean law allows the president to enact bills the government deems urgent if lawmakers fail to approve, modify or reject them within set time limits.

"The time periods have not been met and on Monday I will send this law to the official registry to be published and take effect," Correa said on the radio program "Dialogue."

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9H5LVA00.htm

[jah the baptist]

1. but thats OUR oil

under their land

[earcandle]

2. Glad some countries are cognizant of our rape methods and can take measures to PROTECT themselves.

[KT2000]

3. Big difference, huh?

we get to watch on tv the daily destruction of our resources, environment and humans - all in the name of profits.

[HillbillyBob]

4. I just wish our own government would

protect us from oil, coal, natural gas companies.

[BlueJazz]

5. South American Leaders have more balls than all ours put together

[aquart]

6. Lovely idea. Let's steal it.

[a la izquierda]

7. what the article fails to address...

is whether Ecuador will pay the oil company in question the value of the company. I wish they had, so people wouldn't make ridiculous comments like the poster above me.
Most of the time, when a company is nationalized, the government pays out the value of the company according to tax statements. It's a delicious little turn of the screw, because as we all know from our screwed up country, corporations never declare the full value. This is how it was done in Mexico in 1938.

[martymar64]

8. We should be doing that here in the US

Viva Correa!

[COLGATE4]

9. This is politics as usual in Ecuador. They are famous

(or infamous) for changing the rules of the game mid-stream and either repudiating or make performnace under the original terms impossible in contracts signed with the nation. Certainly not a surprise from Correa.

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. That happen when patriots take over from corrupt individuals who sell

what doesn't belong to them, but to the nation, for a mess of potage (and a hefty honorarium in their own numbered Swiss bank accounts).

[COLGATE4]

11. That's so sophomoric as to be absolutely silly.

If you're going to comment on international relations, do it with some semblance of intellgent discussion, rather than from some polyannishly romantic view of how international business in Latin America actually works. There's nothing 'patriotic' about anyone unilaterally changing a contract, nor is your equally notion that international contracts are let by "corrjupt individuals who sell what doesn't belong to them" pass any kind of reality check. This type of action (which as I already pointed out is fsirly typical of Ecuadorean governments past and present) certainly does not promote economic stability for Ecuador or for the Ecuadorean people who need foreign investment in many infrastructure projects. All this does is make legitimate foreign investment shy away from ever doing business with the Ecuadorean government.

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. Ah... inward investment, the curse of the UK. Duly humbled, I stand corrected and

bow to your superior knowledge. You sound so smart, I can't imagine what could have prompted me to mock your post. I expect the Russians and the Chinese will get the wind up now, and hot-foot it out of South America.

Got stocks in South America, have we?

[COLGATE4]

13. I'm not familiar with your reference to "curse of the UK" - Perhaps

you would enlighten me. I wasn't mocking you - merely saying that what you posted sounded very silly to me. Unlike you, I have lived and worked in Ecuador and seen first-hand the results when international contracts are abrogated. And although I wish I could help with your revolutionary delusions, I do not own any stock in South America.

[Joe Chi Minh]

18. No I was mocking you. Perhaps you're a native Ecuadorian, and English isn't your first language.

Well, let me put it this way: Rolls Royce cars were an iconic British manufacture - at least in our own eyes - for many years. It was bought, I believe by Volkswagen, a German company, anyway, which, as is customary in such circumstances, removed production to Germany; to the cost of course, of many British workers, skilled and unskilled, and doubtless, management.

However, the real beauty of it all is that it is now called, Rolls Royce Deutschland. And frankly I have to give the Germans top marks for mocking us. If ever a degenerate country deserved mockery by continental Europe it is the UK. The workers at Cadburys chocolate company have just been stiffed by your company, Kraft, and consequently, the country, too. Another hilarious own goal. We have what economist Will Hutton calls a 'rentier' economy. The shareholders call the tune, now considered by both political parties as The Country. As in , "The Country has never been richer!" When in fact the country's wealth distribution had been polarised to pre WWII levels.

The French and the German somehow manage to keep a soft spot for us, but they pity us as a country, because of our American-style, neoliberal capitalism, 'red in tooth and claw', which has led the UK to suffer so much worse than them, as a result of this great, predominantly transatlantic Ponzi scheme, whereby your friends have brought the whole world to the edge of an unparalleled, economic precipice. Oh, by the way, many of the 'little people', the 'non-people', have already fallen over the edge. How are you fixed for cash? Just a couple of pay-cheques away from homelessness?

As for your working in Ecuador, I dare say there are plenty of young lads and lassies working on rubbish tips there, but, alas, it affords them no special insight into anything much. And you haven't go stocks in South America! For shame! What sort of a capitalist are you!

However, pardon me if I don't respond to any more of your surprisingly callow and meretricious discursions. It's futile to argue with an opponent whose assumptions are so venal and superficial - so driven by Mammon and so shameless and utterly false.

[sabrina 1]

14. Anyone who wants their oil can buy it from them.

I hope all oil producing countries will do the same. This way there are no huge, corrupt corporations like BP raping lands, mis-treating workers, and hiring thugs in countries like Colombia who kill civilians who object to BP and others destroying their environments as they have done here.

No one in a leadership position in this country cared about the human rights records of these people they handed over the stewardship of our coastal areas to, and inland areas also, (see some of the tragedies they've caused, in Texas eg). If a terrorist did even one tenth of the damage these Oil Corps have done to this country, we would have started a war somewhere.

No country will shy away from buying oil honestly, at a fair price, from oil producing countries if they need it.

For decades the leadership of this country has been selling our resources to the highest, most often foreign, bidders to the point where we appear to have completely lost control of these destructive forces right here in our own country.

Good for Ecuador. I hope this catches on and eventually reaches this country so we never again have a tragedy like the Gulf of Mexico because when it's your country you do tend to care a bit more about what happens to it.

[Zorro]

16. Have you ever been to Ecuador?

[sabrina 1]

17. Were you here during the American Revolution?

What's your point? I have friends in several S.American countries including Venezuela and I can tell you they know more about this country's history in their counties than the average American. And none of it was good for them, and still isn't.

If you want to do business with another country, do it on their terms. If that doesn't suit you, then go someplace else. But South America is changing and it is a large enough area with so many countries now going in the direction of democracy, and the rest of the world watching with interest, that I don't think they are going to worry too much about what the U.S. thinks. We, torturers and invaders that we are, who do not even demand accountability for war crimes, have lost all moral authority in places our many crimes from recent history, are remembered.

The U.S. needs to get on board this train or be left behind with one of the last remaining corrupt, brutal governments in the region.

China, Russia, Europe will deal with S. America if it serves their interests, and already are. We are not the only kids on the block despite the xenophobia of many here who believe we are. Too bad we did so much harm to those people, they might be more sympathetic to our whining now.

[Zorro]

21. If you'd actually ever been to Ecuador

you'd know that unfortunately it's a nation of litterbugs.

So much for your clueless blather about "when it's your country you do tend to care a bit more about what happens to it".

That's my point.

[sabrina 1]

22. Wow, I will tell my friend from Ecuador, that his country

is a nation of litterbugs. Odd, he loves his country and doesn't want to leave for our pristine shores and spotless inner cities, or even our glorious heartland :eyes:

What a ridiculous comment. It will take Ecuador a long time to recover from its brutal past and our criminal interference there. They are still working on getting some justice for their murdered citizens eg, something we do not do at all.

Frankly I care more about the fact they actually do care about holding war criminals accountable. We support our war criminals here while hypocritically screaming about selective war crimes elsewhere, although to be honest, we are friends with most of them.

[Zorro]

25. Oh he'll probably agree

What "brutal past and our criminal interference there" are you talking about?

What "war criminals" are they holding accountable?

I'm sure Ecuadoreans would also like to know,as would I.

Please enlighten the reading public so that they understand you're not just FoS.

[EFerrari]

20. Unless you're two years old and still relying on concrete operational thinking

you don't actually need to be anywhere to gather facts. You need a functioning brain and a smattering of logic. :)

[Zorro]

24. So internet reading trumps personal experience

Then why are you so uninformed on so many subjects? :-)

[naaman fletcher]

28. That's not the way the oil industry works.

The uninformed think that oil just sits there in a pool and its easy to pick up. It's not. It requires tens or hundreds of millions to develop a well. Ecuador does not have the money nor the expertise to do that.

So, they bring in foreign companies to do it, and the foreign companies pay a portion to the government.

Theoretically, if a company comes in and spends hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a well, and then the government changes the terms of the deal later, in the long run it will be bad for Ecuador as companies will refuse to invest again.

BUT, it is also the case in some countries that oil companies have gotten sweet-heart deals by paying off government officials and the contracts should be re-negotiated.

However your opinion that any time a government re-negotiates it is automatically a good thing is naive, as is your understanding of how the oil industry works.

[EFerrari]

19. LOL. My heart bleeds for the oligarchy.

[Odin2005]

27. Yes, god forbid they cancel opressive pro-corporatist contracts.

:eyes:

[naaman fletcher]

29. Please tell me..

What provisions of these contracts are opporessive? Is the royalty payment too low? What amount would not make it oppressive?

Or do you not really have any idea at all?

Thanks!

[sofa king]

15. Uh oh.

1951: Iran nationalizes the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, soon to be better known as BP

1953: A joint CIA/MI6 operation, supported by Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., overthrows the government of Mohammed Mossadeqh, leading to 25 years of autocratic government under the Shah


July, 1956: Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal

October, 1956: France, Britain, and Israel start a war with Egypt


1970: Alfredo Ovando nationalizes Gulf Oil holdings in Bolivia

1970: US-backed coup overthrows Ovando


1970: Salvador Allende elected President of Chile, begins nationalizing various industries.

1973: U.S. backs the fascist coup of Augusto Pinochet.



And so on, and so on....

[Judi Lynn]

23. There are some wierd ones among us who believe we OWN those countries!

Damned shame, isn't it?

In time, the world's going to form a resistance to this crap which will ENDURE against the greedy destructive people among us. They will find a way to overcome the scum in their own country, the maggots who sell out the good people, and help the corporate powers here steal what they can and destroy the rest, hire the people at slave wages, and throw the rest into mass graves.

No doubt they're making snuff films, too, with some of the ones they allow to live a while, to exploit the appetite for people of their kind for fine cinema.

[Odin2005]

26. Good! Go Correa!