By Mercedes Alvaro
QUITO, Ecuador--Ecuador has extended for the second time the
deadline to submit offers for companies interested in the country's
11th oil-licensing round to explore for oil in blocks located in
the southeastern Amazon region, the Ministry of Nonrenewable
Natural Resources said Tuesday.
The original deadline to submit offers was May 30, but in April
the government of President Rafael Correa extended the deadline to
July 16. On Tuesday, the government extended the deadline again, to
Nov. 28.
The licensing round was called last November for 13 oil blocks
in Pastaza and Morona Santiago provinces, near the border with
Peru.
As part of the licensing round, state-run oil company
Petroamazonas also plans to negotiate directly with foreign
state-owned companies to jointly develop three other blocks in the
area.
"The bid opening was suspended after a request from companies
that bought papers that asked for more time to evaluate the
blocks," the Nonrenewable Natural Resources Minister Pedro
Merizalde told Dow Jones Newswires, without providing further
details.
According to the minister, 10 companies, between private and
state-owned, have bought the necessary documents to submit
offers.
Last year, the government said about 20 companies had expressed
interest in the tender, including Repsol (REP, REPYY), Pacific
Rubiales Energy (PRE.T, PEGFF), Talisman Energy In. (TLM) and
state-owned companies from Peru, Colombia, Turkey and Vietnam,
among others.
Analysts have said the licensing round will be a test of how the
Ecuadorean oil sector is seen by investors following the
government's 2010 decision to change oil contracts. Private oil
producers currently receive fees per barrel rather than taking
ownership of the oil they extract.
Additionally, indigenous communities and environmental groups
have asked private and public companies not to participate in the
bidding, arguing it violates the rights of at least seven
indigenous nationalities by imposing oil projects in their
ancestral territories.
On Tuesday, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of
Ecuador, or CONAIE, and the Confederation of Amazonian Indigenous
Nationalities of Ecuador, or CONFENIAE, gathered in the central
square of Puyo, in Pastaza province, to oppose the auction that
they say "would devastate their communities and their way of
life."
Franco Viteri, president of CONFENIAE, said that the
nationalities were on alert and would "not rest" until the oil
round was canceled. He also said they were willing to mobilize
further if needed.
Write to Mercedes Alvaro at mercedes.alvaro@dowjones.com
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