Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/29/business/LA-FIN-Ecuador-Oil-Protest.php#end_main
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QUITO, Ecuador: President Rafael Correa fired the chief of Ecuador's state-run oil company on Thursday after days of protests cost Petroecuador millions of dollars (euros) in lost production.

Petroecuador president Carlos Pareja was replaced by navy Rear Adm. Fernando Zurita, the presidential palace said in a statement.

"What we are looking for with the change is to give greater efficiency to Petroecuador. There are many actions that haven't been taken that would have benefited the company," Energy and Mines Minister Galo Chiriboga told Dow Jones Newswires. "The decision was also influenced by protests in Orellana that have cost around 30,000 barrels of crude oil."

Dozens of protesters took over oil fields in Ecuador's eastern jungle starting Monday, demanding jobs, paved roads and electricity. The protesters reportedly cut communication lines at Petroecuador's Auca Sur and four other fields, and threw a stick of dynamite at one of the pumps, but there were no reports of injuries.

Petroecuador spokesman Fausto Mejia told The Associated Press that the protests are still going on, but that they have lost intensity.

Production losses at Auca Sur are costing Petroecuador US$3 million (€2 million) a day, Correa's office said.

In an interview with Radio Sonorama the president criticized the protesters for attacking the country's most important resource. "We cannot let 30, 40 people threaten the wealth that sustains all Ecuadoreans," Correa said.

Ecuador is South America's fifth-largest oil producer, with daily production of about a half-million barrels.