ECUADOR CRUDE OIL EXPORTS STOPPED FOR FIVE MONTHS
Ecuador needs 120 mln dlrs to repair the
damage to its oil export pipeline caused by last week"s
earthquake, which will stop crude exports for five months,
energy and mines minister Javier Espinosa Teran said.
    Espinosa said yesterday the pipeline, which carries crude
from jungle fields to the Pacific Ocean coast of Balao, would
be repaired with the help of Texaco Inc <TX.N> and a Mexican
and an Argentine firm.
    President Leon Febres Cordero said two days ago that
Ecuador, an OPEC member, would have to suspend crude exports
for four months due to the quake.
    Oil traditionally accounts for up to two-thirds of
Ecuador's total exports and as much as 60 pct of government
revenues.
    Deputy energy minister Fernando Santos Alvite said Ecuador
would have to import six to seven mln barrels of crude oil to
meet its needs until the line was repaired.
    The Ecuadorean minister at the Presidency, Patricio
Quevedo, told reporters that Venezuela will lend Ecuador five
mln barrels of crude, which would repaid in kind after a
180-day period.
    He added the Caracas-based Andean Development Corp had
granted a loan of 11.7 mln dlrs towards repairing the pipeline,
50 km of which had been damaged in the quake.
    In Quito, Foreign Minister Rafael Garcia Velasco yesterday
summoned ambassadors from about 40 countries to whom he issued
appeal for emergency aid for the country. Only three countries,
the U.S., Colombia and Venezuela, had offered assistance.
 REUTER
