Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 17 2020

LatAmOil ECUADOR LatAmOil
 Last October, Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno took steps to eliminate most gasoline and diesel subsidies. He then reversed course after indigenous groups launched widespread protests, some of which turned violent. The unrest caused an almost two-week lockdown in the country.
CONAIE, Ecuador’s largest grouping of indigenous nations, does not favour changes in the fuel subsidy policy. Instead, it has argued that the government’s best option for getting its finances in order is to suspend payments on for- eign debt.
Global oil prices have fallen drastically in recent weeks, with the coronavirus (COVID- 19) pandemic pushing down demand and the world’s top producers launching a price war. So far, Ecuador has had one of the worst outbreaks of the virus in all of Latin America, and its public
health woes have aroused some concerns over public finances.
Earlier this month, Ecuador’s cash-strapped government signed a deal with bondholders that enabled it to defer interest payments on several bonds until the end of August. Officials in Quito say the agreement will liberate around $811mn worth of funds to fight the virus.
Ecuador depends heavily on oil revenues, as crude is the country’s biggest export. The South American state currently produces around 530,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude. About a third of the total comes from state-run Petroam- azonas, a subsidiary of the national oil company (NOC) Petroecuador.
Meanwhile, Petroecuador exports an average of 180,000 bpd of crude. About 120,000 bpd of this is Oriente crude, the highest-quality grade of oil from the country’s Amazon region.™
GUYANA has received a total of 34 bids for a new contract to market the government’s share of crude oil. The tender attracted offers from several international majors, the South Ameri- can country’s National Procurement and Tender Board revealed last week.
One of the most prominent bidders was the US super-major ExxonMobil, which has pio- neered deepwater exploration in Guyana’s off- shore zone. The board also reported that Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Netherlands) had made an offer, as had France’s Total, Saudi Arabia’s Ara- mco, Russia’s Lukoil, Norway’s Equinor.
Bids also came in from several Swiss-based commodity traders – Gunvor, Glencore Mer- curia and Vitol.
Additionally, offers were made by the
trading arm of Brazil’s state-controlled Petro-
bras, Trinidad and Tobago’s state-owned energy
firm Heritage and two state-owned Chinese companies, PetroChina and Sinochem. 
Ecuador’s domestic fuel prices are kept artificially low (Photo: Ecuador Times)
GUYANA
Guyana receives 34 bids
for crude marketing contract
Guyana loaded its first cargo in December (Photo: Caribbean Business Report)
P8
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 17 30•April•2020