1.37 billion barrels were committed to Asian companies, but a good percentage was handled by Gunvor, Taurus and other intermediaries.
Some 1,387 million barrels of crude oil and fueloil were committed for delivery between 2009 and 2024 in long-term contracts with Asian companies such as Petrochina, Unipec and Petrotailandia. Despite the fact that in theory and according to statements by former President Rafael Correa himself, this type of operations with state-owned companies had been established to end the participation of intermediaries, what really happened was that most of this business was done through them.
Thus, 98% of the volume of crude and fueloil delivered to Asian companies had as destinations North America, Central America and countries in the region such as Peru and Chile, “Activities that could perfectly have been carried out by Petroecuador.” In addition, according to information provided in cooperation with Petroperú, there were endorsements of the Ecuadorian oil sales to intermediaries such as Gunvor, Taurus, Castor Petroleum, Banco ING Belgium Geneva Branch y Natixis.
Additionally, due to the pricing formula within these contracts there could have been a loss to the State of $ 3 for each barrel, comparing the price that was billed and the spot.
Those were the main conclusions that were established this morning on the Petrochina case, within the Audit Commission, chaired by Fernando Villavicencio and to which the manager of Petroecuador, Pablo Luna, and the manager of International Trade of the state company, Pablo Noboa.
Villavicencio assured that an evident conclusion is that among the beneficiaries of this type of business are a group of related companies. Said Gunvor is the owner of Castor and in turn Castor is linked to Taurus (in turn related to Enrique Cadena Marín). He also recalled that Reymond Kohut, a former Gunvor employee, prosecuted in the United States., has confessed to having given $ 22 million to high officials of Rafael Correa.
The explanation would be that in these businesses the state-owned companies were used as screens and the businesses were run by intermediaries. A similar case. he said, it was that of Vitol, who would have used Oman Trading for a similar business. He assured that according to the investigations of the US justice system, Vitol paid commissions or bribes to Nilsen Arias, former international trade manager, said the assemblyman.
Meanwhile, the manager of Petroecuador, Pablo Luna, explained that from the information they have been able to obtain on the contracts concluded, it was established that in all of them the destination was free for the buyer to decide. The money tied to the sale of crude they reached rates between 6.9% and 7.3%.
Additionally, a reasoned report was made in the previous government in which the current government was recommended not to reissue this type of contract because it was detrimental to the state company. Likewise, at the moment some 2,000 invoices related to these contracts, in order to establish the route of the money of the negotiations.
On the other hand, the authorities of Petroecuador ratified that their administration will make a good amount of sales spot, which allow you to monitor market prices. In this sense, Noboa assured that a renegotiation has been made with PTT in order not to have to deliver all the crude that was committed for 2022, Instead, it extended the term until December 2023.
Since last year, it had already been warned that Ecuador would have problems in complying with all the crude oil commitments and there was even talk of an exportable balance in red for 2022. However, with this renegotiation there will be more slack for delivery and it is guaranteed to be able to carry out sales spot periodically and in accordance with the regulations. It is that between 2015 and 2016 sales were stopped and this was one more element that hurt the prices of long-term contracts.
Noboa, in its conclusions and recommendations, said that a good practice transparency It must be that the spreads should not be tied to formulas but should respond to the spreads dictated by the international market. Public bidding contests for sale must always be carried out spot.
Villavicencio thanked the information provided by the Petroecuador authorities, unlike the previous managers of the company in which there was an information ban. (I)
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