ECUADOR TO ASK OPEC TO RAISE EXPORT QUOTA

  Ecuador will ask OPEC to raise its oil
  export quota by 100,000 barrels per day to 310,000 to
  compensate for lost output due to last week's earthquake,
  deputy Energy Minister Fernando Santos Alvite said.
      Santos Alvite, who arrived in Caracas last night to discuss
  an aid plan for Ecuador, did not say when the Organisation of
  Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would be approached.
      The additional output would be related to plans now under
  discussion for Venezuela and Mexico to lend Ecuador crude while
  it repairs a pipeline damaged by the quake.
      Earlier, Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister Aturo
  Hernandez Grisanti said his country would supply an unspecified
  part of Ecuador's export commitments.
      But Santos Alvite told reporters he hoped a first cargo of
  300,000 barrels could leave Maracaibo this weekend to supply
  refineries near Guayaquil. He added Ecuador also wanted to make
  up for 50,000 bpd it shipped to Caribbean destinations. Mexico
  might supply Ecuador's South Korean market.
      Ecuador may be unable to export oil for up to five months
  due to extensive damage to a 25 mile stretch of pipeline
  linking jungle oilfields to the Pacific port of Balao.
  

