Environmental activists have been arrested, released, and deported, troops have come and gone, environmental officials have dared to pull a license stopping work until the pipeline is repaired, and pressure is brought by the World Bank to change the route, but still Ecuadorean President Gustavo Noboa has vowed to complete the 450,000 b/d heavy crude oil pipeline (OCP) in time to begin service by 2003 (EC Mar.1,p12).
Ecuador certainly needs the export pipeline for its main source of revenue. It would allow foreign firms to boost oil output by an initial 230,000 b/d, gradually increasing to the line’s capacity. State Petroecuador would meanwhile have the existing Sote pipeline to itself, ultimately filling it with nearly 300,000 b/d. As if to underscore the central role of oil exports, Ecuador’s central bank said on Apr. 3 that oil exports were worth $226 million in the first two months of the year, down 36% from last year and the main contributor to a $106 million trade deficit in February.
But environmentalists won’t give up. The project also hasn’t been helped by government disputes with members of the OCP consortium, made up of Alberta Energy, Repsol-YPF, ENI, Argentina’s Perez Companc (Pecom Energia), and Occidental Petroleum. Kerr McGee is selling its share. Last week, Ecuador’s comptroller-general determined that Repsol owed Ecuador $60.6 million for crude transported through the Sote between 1997 and 2000. He said Repsol underpaid by 48¢/bbl in 1997 and by 78¢/bbl from 1998 onward. Repsol said it would appeal.
