Weekly Report - 24 August 2017 (WR-17-33)

A crisis at the Esmeraldas oil refinery has become the latest source of conflict between President Lenín Moreno and his predecessor Rafael Correa (2007-2017). Moreno revealed a series of major problems facing Ecuador’s oil industry during a visit to the Esmeraldas refinery, in the north-western province of the same name, on 15 August, denouncing “huge irresponsibility” in the management of the complex. Correa lashed back on Twitter, reminding Moreno that he served as his vice-president for the first six years of his decade in power.

President Moreno was accompanied on his visit by Carlos Pérez, the hydrocarbons minister, who described the Esmeraldas plant as being in “a critical situation” despite substantial investment in recent years, as its renovation became a flagship project of the Correa administration. Francisco Moreno, the current superintendent of the facility, concurred. Pérez requested that the comptroller general’s office investigate the work at the plant in order to determine responsibility for the present failings.