2024-07-12 03:41:23
Oil production continues to fall while fields such as ITT have wells shut down due to the impossibility of transporting heavy crude oil through the paralyzed OCP. Minister Roberto Luque assured that it will take 10 more days for that pipeline to operate normally again.
On June 23, the total oil production had already fallen to 392,730 barrels per day, when until June 16 it reached 485,533 barrels per day. This, as reported by LA HORA, already means a total drop of 92,803 barrels in production, taking into account both Petroecuador as well as private companies.
As of June 24, 2024 (last published report), production continued to decline and reached 390,999 barrels per day. In the case of ITT, it went from 7,639 barrels to 7,589 barrels per day.
The Minister of Energy and Mines in charge, Roberto Luque, during an energy sector event in Quito, said on June 25 the reestablishment of crude oil pumping by OCP Ecuador tIt will still take 10 more days, which will prolong the crisis and may further decrease production.
“We were given a 15-day period approximately five days ago. My expectation is that OCP will be active for 10 more days and we can recover those barrels,” Luque said.
The Minister noted that the regressive erosion It is not a new problem and the Government must work on a definitive solution with variants and infrastructure that move away from that area. “SOTE, OCP, bridges… We are working on doing something together so that the definitive variant covers all these linear infrastructures.”
He risk countrywhich reached 1,421 points the day before, is now at 1,462 points.
Nelson Baldeón, a businessman linked to the energy sector, explained, through his X account, that the main factor in the escalation of the country’s risk is “the abrupt fall in the country’s oil production, and the permanent power cuts. There are $11 billion of oil investment stagnant, which have not been executed.”
Even before the crisis triggered by the paralysis of the OCP, Ecuadorian oil production was clearly on a downward trend and the same was true of the income that reaches the General State Budget (PGE).
Thus, according to a recent report from the Fiscal Policy Observatory, between January and May 2024, oil revenues to the PGE amounted to $514 million. This represented $242 million less than the $756 million (32% drop) recorded between January and May 2023. (JS)
By: LA HORA Newspaper