ECUADOR QUAKE TO CUT OIL REVENUES 800 MLN DLRS

  up to 300 people were feared dead and more
  than 15,000 people left homeless by thursday's earthquake,
  which will cost Ecuador close to 800 mln dlrs in lost petroleum
  revenues, authorities said.
      They estimated the cost of repairing a damaged oil pipeline
  at 150 mln dlrs.
      "the magnitude of the damages caused by the earthquake is
  gigantic," president leon febres cordero said after inspecting
  the damages in napo, the hardest-hit jungle province, 100 miles
  from here.
      The quake damaged 40 km of an oil pipeline, forcing this
  opec nation to suspend crude exports for four months, president
  febres cordero said in a statement issued today by the
  presidential press office.
      The country would lose an estimated 800 mln dlrs in crude
  exports until the pipeline was repaired, the president said. It
  would cost 150 mln dlrs to repair the pipelline which carries
  oil from jungle oil fields over the andes to Balao, a pacific
  ocean port.
      Crude traditionally accounts for up to two-thirds of
  ecuador's exports.
      the quake triggered landslides, swelling the aguarico river
  which burst it banks carrying away homes and huts in napo
  province, health minister jorge brancho told reuters.
      "we fear that up to 300 people died in napo though there is
  no way of now knowing the exact figure because many people have
  disappeared," he said.
      Other estimates ranged as high as 500 dead.
      So far 20 corpses have been recovered, bracho said.
      Information Minister Marco Lara told reporters: "the number
  of dead and injured is not known ... because we do not know how
  many people lived in the homes hit by the landslides."
      Bracho said at least 15,000 were left homeless in the
  cayambe district.
  

