Ecuador says to renegotiate oil contracts

[struggle4progress]

QUITO, Ecuador, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Ecuador President Alfredo Palacio, bowing to protester demands, vowed on Wednesday to renegotiate oil company contracts to increase the country's participation to 50 percent or above.

"The oil contracts will be revised," he told local television Wednesday morning, saying current deals allowing for only about 20 percent state participation "will not continue."

He added, "We have to have at least 50/50."

Demanding an increase in state participation in the contracts, protesters in two northeastern oil producing provinces crippled the country's crude exports last month by attacking pipelines and vandalizing pumping equipment. <snip>

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20050907:MTFH58490_2005-09-07_14-33-28_N07484642:1

[pfitz59]

1. Watch for coup in Ecuador......

Stepping on BUSHCO profiteering....

[bemildred]

2. Maybe not..

We got to this point in the first place because the military
was not willing to fire on the protestors, or at least that is
what I infer.

[1932]

4. I remember reading that the commanders in the army refuse to shoot

fellow citizens.

So either the US is desperately looking for someone in the mold of Pinochet within the army, or maybe the US will find a new method of control if all the old methods fail.

[1932]

3. IIRC, the US flipped out when Venezuela went from less than 7%

to between 20 and 30%. I think I read somewhere that between 20 and 30 is industry standard even for countries relatively powerless in the face of the big oil companies.