Speaking out: Rafael Correa
Correa hopes to seal rejigged oil deals
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said today he hopes foreign oil companies will sign new temporary contracts in one month.
Ecuador last week offered companies lower taxes in new deals in exchange for them to drop lawsuits filed against the leftist government over a controversial windfall tax, a Reuters report said.
"We hope in a month to sign modified contracts and in a year from that date to have service contracts," Correa told a local television station in an interview.
Ecuador wants oil companies to switch from contracts that allow them to keep part of the oil they extract to deals in which the state would keep all the crude and pay them a service fee.
Over the weekend Correa said most foreign companies had already agreed to sign temporary deals.
Ecuador is renegotiating contracts with Spain's Repsol YPF, Brazilian giant petrobras, China's Andes Petroleum consortium and Perenco.
Some of those companies and their minority partners have sued Ecuador in international courts over a windfall tax they say makes their business in the country unviable.
Ecuador produces around 500,000 barrels of oil per day, of which nearly half is extracted by private players and the rest by state oil company Petroecuador.