Weekly Report - 09 October 2014 (WR-14-40)

ECUADOR | Racing to boost oil output in the face of falling prices. Ecuador’s oil production averaged a new record of 560,600 barrels per day (b/d) in August, according to latest data from the hydrocarbons secretariat. Under the draft 2015 budget recently announced by Finance Minister Fausto Herrera, daily output is pencilled in at 580,000 barrels by end-2014. However, there was a 1.5% dip in production in September to an average 539,900 b/d, putting output back at year-earlier levels. Of this, the state-owned Petroamazonas produced an average of 424,690 b/d, while foreign and private operators extracted an average of 115,200 b/d.