VENEZUELA TO LEND ECUADOR 50,000 BPD OF CRUDE

  Venezuela will lend Ecuador 50,000
  barrels per day of crude oil over the next few months to help
  it meet its export commitments, Energy and Mines Minister
  Arturo Hernandez Grisanti said today.
      He said that under the terms of this loan, agreed during a
  visit here this week by Ecuador's Deputy Energy Minister
  Fernando Santos Alvite, Ecuador will begin repaying the loan in
  August.
      Hernandez Grisanti said the loan will go part way to
  offsetting the loss of Ecuador's 140,000 in exports caused by
  earthquake damage to 25 miles of pipeline last week.
      Ecuador was forced to suspend exports after the pipeline
  connecting its jungle oil fields with the pacific port of Balao
  was put out of action.
      Venezuela has an output quota of 1.495 bpd, while Ecuador's
  is 210,000 bpd. Santos Alvite said Ecuador will ask OPEC to
  allow it to produce 100,000 bpd above its quota when the
  pipeline is repaired to offset present production losses.
      Hernandez Grisanti said also a first 300,000 barrels
  shipment of Venezuelan crude oil will leave for Ecuador this
  weekend to help meet domestic consumption needs.
      The oil, part of a five mln additional crude oil loan by
  Venezuela, will be processed at Guayaquil refineries.
      "If we had not supplied oil to Ecuador the life of this
  country would have ground to a halt," he said.
  

