ECUADOR |
Privatising Petroecuador? President Rafael Correa criticised the state owned oil company Petroecuador in his weekend broadcast and demanded that it improve the quality of its production under the threat of privatising it. He said he was no longer prepared to tolerate the company’s inefficiency and laissez-faire attitude. He said that the bureaucracy in Petroecuador was so pronounced it played into the hands of “privatisers and neoliberals”. He added: “it is the typical behaviour of a monopoly which knows that whether things are done well or poorly everyone receives the same cheque.” He bewailed “the shame (of having) probably the worst diesel in the world” and said that henceforth there would be stricter controls and more incentives. He also promised a thorough restructuring of state companies to ensure that they work to achieve results and profits.
Petroecuador wasted no time in responding to the lacerating criticism. The managing director of the company, Marco Calvopiña, announced a tender for the construction of two plants to improve the quality of diesel by reducing the high sulphur content. He said they would cost US$1.4bn and would be installed in two of the country’s three refineries, in Esmeraldas and Amazonas.
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