Ecuador Takes Over Two Amazon Oil Blocks
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP
Quito: Ecuador has taken over the operation of two oil blocks in the Amazon rainforest that since 1999 had been operated by Spain's Repsol under a contract now expired, state company Petroecuador said on Sunday.
Petroecuador said in a statement it 'assumes operation' of blocks 16 and 67 after Repsol's contracts for exploration and exploitation ended on December 31.
The blocks are in the Amazonian province of Orellana in Ecuador's east, and produce 13,533 barrels of oil per day.
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They are located in the Yasuni National Park, home to a nature reserve and Indigenous communities.
Crude oil is a major revenue source in Ecuador, whose total production was 479,000 barrels per day from January to November 2022, 78 percent of it by Petroecuador.
The country exported 312,400 barrels per day during that period, generating nearly $8.4 billion, according to the Central Bank.
In 2020 the Ecuadoran government thwarted a deal for Repsol to sell its rights to the two blocks to the Canadian firm New Stratus Energy, meaning the blocks would revert to the state once the contracts ended.
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