OPEC’s secretary-general has promised to help Ecuador boost oil production and refining, Ecuador’s oil ministry said on Sunday, even as the cartel hesitates to increase oil output worldwide.
OPE will help Ecuador, South America’s fifth-largest oil producer, “modernize” its oil fields and increase sagging output, a ministry statement quoting Abdalla Salem El-Badri said.
OPEC will also train Ecuadoran technicians to run a US$5 billion oil refinery that Ecuador plans to build on its Pacific coast in cooperation with Venezuela, the statement said, giving no other details.
Production at Ecuador’s state oil company has fallen more than 3 percent since December to 169,000 barrels a day — well below its 180,000 barrels a day target, prompting the company’s chief to resign last Tuesday. Petroecuador accounts for about a third of the nation’s oil output.
El-Badri visited Ecuador for five days last week, telling reporters that speculators, not supply shortages, were responsible for soaring world oil prices. Ecuador rejoined OPEC in October, after 15 years on its own.
The ministry said El-Badri also voiced support for Ecuador’s efforts to seek compensation from other countries in return for not tapping oil reserves in Yasuni National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere reserve.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa’s government has threatened to open the jungle reserve to bidders unless the “international community,” which he has not defined, agrees to pay Ecuador a minimum of US$350 million a year for 10 years by June 15.
Environmental groups like Amazon Watch support that proposal, noting that the Yasuni reserve, which sits on an estimated 1 billion barrels of crude, has more varieties of plant life than the US and Canada combined.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from