Perenco to halt Ecuador oil output in tax fight

QUITO (Reuters) – French oil company Perenco will temporarily halt operations in Ecuador from Thursday over a fight with the government concerning taxes, a top company executive told Reuters on Wednesday.

Ecuador has seized the bulk of Perenco’s production since March in a bid to collect more than $350 million it says the company owes in windfall taxes.

“The suspension will start tomorrow, Thursday 16, at midday Quito time (1700 GMT),” the company’s Latin America manager Rodrigo Marquez said in a telephone interview.

“It’s going to be something temporary because we are going to keep our personnel there, in the hope that the government backtracks,” Marquez said.

In a statement on Wednesday evening Ecuadorean oil minister Germanico Pinto called Perenco’s decision “illegal, unilateral and arbitrary”, and said the government will take “the necessary measures” to guarantee the interests of the state.

Reuters