Ecuador will propose legislation to take over the operations of oil companies in the country unless the firms sign new contracts aimed at increasing state control over the sector, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said on Saturday.
The government wants foreign oil companies to give up their profit-sharing deals and sign new contracts under which they would become service providers, but negotiations over the new contracts are progressing slowly.
“Every day that passes, there are millions of dollars going to these companies that should be going to the Ecuadorean state,” Correa said during a televised address. “I’m out of patience. We are sending a bill to Congress that would allow for the expropriation of oil fields should the companies not want to sign the new contracts.”
Spain’s Repsol, Italy’s Eni, Chinese consortium Andes Petroleum and Brazil’s Petrobras operate in the Andean country, despite Correa’s ongoing spats with the private sector.
The leftist president says OPEC-member Ecuador needs to increase control over its own natural resources.
Correa has had a troubled relationship with private investors. He shocked the markets in 2008 by defaulting on US$3.2 billion in bonds and has sided with plaintiffs in the Amazon region of the country who are suing US oil company Chevron Corp for US$27 billion in environmental damages.
He has threatened to nullify an arbitration ruling against his government in its feud with the oil giant.
The push for state control over oil and minerals in Latin America is being spearheaded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other