ECUADOR TO EXPORT NO OIL FOR FOUR MONTHS, OFFICIAL

  The suspension of Ecuador's crude oil
  shipments after an earthquake cut an oil pipeline will last at
  least four months, a senior Energy Ministry official said.
      The official said Ecuador could resume exports after
  repairing a 40 km section of the 510 km pipeline, which links
  jungle oil fields at Lago Agrio to Balao on the Pacific coast.
  It would take about 100 mln U.S. Dlrs to repair the pipeline,
  the official, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.
  Ecuador had enough oil to meet domestic demand for about 35
  days and would have to import crude to supplement stocks.
      The earthquake last Thursday night registered six on the
  12-point international Mercalli scale. The damage to the
  pipeline was a severe economic blow to Ecuador, where oil
  accounts for up to two-thirds of total exports and as much as
  60 pct of government revenues.
      Financially pressed Ecuador, a member of the Organisation
  of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was recently pumping
  about 260,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, about 50,000 bpd
  above the output quota assigned by the cartel, another Energy
  Ministry spokesman said. Last year, it exported an average of
  173,500 bpd, according to the central bank.
      However, Ecuador might build an emergency 25 km pipeline,
  costing 15 to 20 mln dlrs, to hook up with a Colombian
  pipeline, the first official said. He estimated it could take
  about 60 days to build.
      Ecuador, squeezed by the slide in world oil prices in 1986,
  had only 138 mln dlrs in net international reserves at the end
  of January, about equal to one month's imports.
      It suspended interest payments in January on 5.4 billion
  dlrs owed to about 400 private foreign banks. The country's
  total foreign debt is 8.16 billion dlrs, the eighth largest in
  Latin America.
      In Caracas, President Jaime Lusinchi said Venezuela would
  loan five mln barrels of crude to Ecuador over the next three
  months to make up for losses from damage to the pipeline.
      Ecuador asked for the loan to guarantee domestic supplies
  and would ship an equivalent volume back to Venezuela in
  repayment in May, Lusinchi said.
      A commission headed by Venezuelan Investment Fund Minister
  Hector Hurtado and including representatives from the interior
  and defence ministries and the state oil company Petroleos de
  Venezuela will travel to Ecuador Tuesday to evaluate and
  co-ordinate an emergency relief program, he said.
  

