[NYTr] Ecuador Rejoins OPEC
 
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:10:18 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Iran Daily (IRNA) - Oct 24, 2007
http://www.iran-daily.com

Ecuador Rejoins OPEC

QUITO, Ecuador, Oct. 24--The Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries has accepted Ecuador back as an active member, the energy
minister said on Tuesday. 

OPEC sent a letter to Ecuadorean authorities dated Oct. 23, two weeks
after the Andean country officially asked to regain its active
membership status, Minister Galo Chiriboga told AP.

Ecuador stopped paying OPEC dues in 1992, although it never formally
quit the organization. Chiriboga said Ecuador and OPEC agreed on a
three-year payment plan for the dues baccording to the statebs
financial possibilitiesb. 

The South American country owes OPEC about $5.7 million. OPEC
countriesb heads of state meet Nov. 17 in Saudi Arabia, and Ecuadorbs
President Rafael Correa has said he wants to take part. Ecuador is a
marginal oil producer, with 507,000 barrels a day in private and state
production. 

Alejandro Fuentes, a deputy minister at the Mines and Energy Ministry,
said Chiriboga and others will travel to OPEC headquarters in Vienna to
make sure all legal requirements for resuming active membership are
met. The Correa administration has said several times it wants to
rejoin OPEC for strategic reasons, ranging from technology support to
access to loans from other member countries. 

                               ***

Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Ecuador Back in OPEC

Quito, Oct 24 (Prensa Latina) The return of Ecuador to the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting countries is a fact after that Latin American
country was invited to attend the summit of OPEC member countries'
presidents.

Minister of Mining and Oil Galo Chiriboga received a letter in which
OPEC invites Ecuador to participate in the 3rd OPEC heads of state
meeting scheduled for November 17-18 in Riyadh, in Arabia, said a
government source on Tuesday.

The note arrived 13 days after the government requested to re-enter
OPEC, which it left in 1992, and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa
participated in the meeting in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia.

Correa ratified some days ago Ecuador's intention to rejoin OPEC and
called it an important step since it could access information and be
acquainted with commercial exchanges of other countries with foreign
firms.

hr ajs lgo mf

PL-4

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