Opec will advise in Manabí refinery

Ecuadornews:

The General Secretary of the organization met yesterday with President Lenin Moreno. 

Technicians from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will provide advice to Ecuador in the bidding process of the Manabí Refinery. The information came, without further details, about the visit of Mohammed Barkindo, OPEC secretary, who held meetings with the President of the Republic, Lenin Moreno, and the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Carlos Pérez, among other authorities.

“We want advice on how to properly manage and learn from activities in this type of contract,” Pérez said. Last week, a round of investments was carried out with 28 international companies interested in developing the project previously called Pacific Refinery.

Three consortiums are set to compete for the award of the work whose investment would be about $ 5,000 million plus an additional $ 3,000 million in complementary works.

The support requested from OPEC also concerns the training of Ecuadorian professionals in the hydrocarbon area, both in technical and economic terms.

Barkindo, elected as general secretary on May 2, 2016, arrived in the country yesterday after passing through Venezuela. He described as constructive and instructive the talk with Moreno regarding the restoration of oil prices.

“The President has reiterated the continued support that Ecuador will have with OPEC.” The country supports the policies undertaken by the agency such as the decrease in world oil production, whose prolongation will be defined at the next meeting of the international body in July.

In this regard, the Minister of Hydrocarbons mentioned that Ecuador continues to support the initiative “until it is necessary to maintain the balance of the market”, which has led to better commercialization prices with about $ 65 per barrel of WTI crude oil (reference for the country) in the last weeks.

Ecuador committed to reduce around 26,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and Perez confirmed that it is complying with more than 85% (approximately 22,100 barrels). As of February 5, the controlled production registered 391,869 barrels of oil per day (bpd), according to Petroamazonas. The government aims to increase its production to 700,000 bpd in 2021. As part of its agenda, Barkindo had more technical meetings with authorities in the hydrocarbons sector. (I)

Source: http://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/economia/4/la-opep-asesorara-en-refineria-de-manabi