Ecuador President: Rafael Correa.

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Ecuador wants new pipeline deal By Upstream staff

Ecuador wants to renegotiate a contract with a group of foreign oil companies controlling a key oil pipeline in the Opec nation because it says they have been evading taxes, President Rafael Correa said on Saturday.

Spain's Repsol YPF, Brazil's Petrobras, France's Perenco and Andes Petroleum, which is controlled by China's National Petroleum Corporation, have stakes in the Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline, or OCP. "We're going to sit down with these people and tell them that they are stealing from the Ecuadorean state ... We're going to renegotiate the OCP contract," Correa said during his weekly media address in Quito.

"They've evaded hundreds of millions of dollars worth of taxes. We're no longer going to allow that," he said. The 300-mile OCP carries some 130,000 barrels of heavy crude oil per day. It carries oil from the fields in northeast of the country to the Pacific port of Esmeraldas.

Since taking office in 2007, Correa, a leftist and an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has raised taxes and threatened to end contracts if oil companies do not agree to become service providers in exchange for a fee.

The US-educated economist has said he does not plan to nationalise foreign oil companies, but wants to increase state revenue from the key oil sector via new contracts. His aggressive tactics have prompted several companies to sue the Opec nation in foreign courts and cut investment.

The government has said it expect to sign the new deals before the end of the year.