Ecuador mulls 2-year oil supply deal with China

Ecuador is negotiating a two-year oil supply contract with China for which the Andean country would receive $1 billion as an advance payment, Economic Policy Minister Diego Borja told Reuters on Monday.

“(The $1 billion) is a down payment for oil sales. We’re going to agree to supply 96,000 barrels per day at the day’s price for 24 months,” Borja told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Borja said that negotiations with China are still on-going, and that the board of directors of state-run oil company Petroecuador gave the government the go-ahead to continue with the talks on Monday.

According to the Chinese customs office, China imported 326,000 tonnes of crude oil from Ecuador in the first four months of 2009.

The-OPEC member nation produced over 485,000 barrels of crude oil per day in May.

Reuters