They are in any case the reasons given Friday by the government.
"The government of Ecuador has decided to end its working relationship with Repsol (...) it is a termination", announced Minister of Petroleum Derlis Palacios at a press conference . ( Finance Information City )
"Unfortunately, we could not reach an agreement with Repsol (...) They constantly changed criteria, and we could not negotiate," he added.
Recall that the Minister of Mines and Petroleum of Ecuador, Galo Chiriboga, also vice-president of OPEC, had been replaced early October by President Rafael Correa. This decision was taken in negotiating contracts between state companies to foreign oil.
"Significant progress has been made on oil policy, but we believe it is good to change. The moment of succession has happened because we have not yet completed the negotiations," had said President Rafael Correa during a ceremony marking the transfer of power between Mr Chiriboga and Derlis Palacios.
In his post, Galo Chiriboga was responsible for renegotiating with the 13 foreign oil companies in Ecuador contracts allowing them to exploit deposits in the country. Differences of opinion seemed to be emerging between the president and his minister of Ecuador, the first being in favor of a harder line against foreign companies, in particular the Brazilian Petrobras.
Rafael Correa had threatened to nationalize a field operated by the latter in Ecuador if the company does not fold to new government requirements.
The hope that live, a spokesman for the oil group said Friday, however hopeful that Repsol did not consider negotiations broke down and hoped to reach an agreement with Ecuador.
It must be said that it is worth the candle. The company previously extracted about 60,000 barrels of oil per day in Ecuador, the smallest member of OPEC, but the fifth South American producer, with a total production of about 508,000 barrels per day in the first half of 2008, more than half (366 000) were exported.
Drawing heavily on the policy in Bolivia and Venezuela, socialist president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, was questioned for more than a year, the contracts between the Ecuadorian State to some 13 foreign oil companies , Including demanding a fairer distribution of profits.
According to authorities, the current contract leaves Repsol 80% of production.
In early October the former Minister of Oil announced that Repsol-YPF and the French Perenco had agreed to amend the contracts binding them to Ecuador to continue to operate several wells in the country.
Galo Chiriboga said at a press conference that Perenco, which produces 30,000 barrels per day in Ecuador, had agreed to move from a contract said to participate in a simple contract to provide services. This change should come into force within a year.
Until the arrival of socialist president Rafael Correa, elected in November 2006, 13 oil companies operating in Ecuador were governed by a contract of participation. They took all the blows extraction and redistributing 18% of the production of raw country.
Then they repay only 50% of extraordinary profits related to higher oil prices in Ecuador, it was hard to get a new distribution of these gains.
The service contract provides instead that the state retains control over oil, and negotiates with airlines and the cost of production and distribution of profits.
Before Perenco, the Chinese Andes Petroleum, had also accepted an amendment to its contract.
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