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| Ecuador pressures Spanish, French oil firms |
| Quito, 15.02.2009 |
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| Ecuador's President Rafael Correa on Saturday ordered the collection of oil windfall taxes owed by Spain's Repsol-YPF and Perenco of France.
He said he anticipated possible friction with the firms' governments over the measure.
"Since they have not paid their taxes on extraordinary gains (due to the high price of crude) I have ordered an act of coercion on Repsol and Perenco," Correa said in his weekly address, using the term for legal action that could lead to a freeze on the companies' assets.
"This country will not put up with outside elements that want to tell us what to do or not do," Correa said.
The leftist leader, who has aligned himself over the past year with socialist President Hugo Chavez of oil-rich Venezuela, did not reveal the amount of taxes owed by the two firms operating in the South American OPEC member nation.
He indicated that Repsol-YPF -- which extracts some 48,900 barrels per day (bpd) -- and Perenco (25,600 bpd) "have caused us to lose time" in renegotiating contracts with the firms, without bringing any additional gains to the state.
The firms have largely refused to comply with a government order to pay up to 99 percent of revenues above a benchmark price for crude.
Correa implemented the windfall tax hike shortly after taking office in early 2007, but has since reduced the margin to 50 percent amid renegotiations with foreign oil firms.
Correa, who in the past has threatened to end deals with foreign companies as a negotiation strategy to improve the terms for the state, is struggling to find a way to pay for programs after oil prices crashed.
The order to collect the windfall tax "is going to create friction with the governments of France and Spain, which strongly defend their multinational companies ... but here we will make them respect our sovereignty," he said.
Correa added that when oil prices were "extremely high we did not see two pennies of these gains while they lined their pockets."
Ecuador is the smallest member of OPEC with a production average of 506,000 bpd.
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