An inter-institutional commission is created to manage four megaprojects in the hydrocarbon sector for $12.7 billion

The Ministry of Energy and Mines and EP Petroecuador formed a Commission to define and detail the processes and a work schedule to develop four megaprojects, with the help of the private sector, amounting to $12.7 billion. The commission will be made up of three delegates from Petroecuador, three from the Ministry of Energy and one from the Secretariat of Public-Private Partnerships.

The commission must deliver the information, documentation and a schedule to the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, in the coming days.

The manager of EP Petroecuador, Ítalo Cedeño, pointed out: “The four megaprojects that have been considered are: Central East, Central West, Offshore, and an EOR secondary recovery program, totaling a value of $12.7 billion.” “We must work as a team and join forces so that oil production rises every day and thus generate benefits for the country,” he said.

In this context, yesterday, an inter-institutional coordination workshop was held at the EP Petroecuador offices, between the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the public company. This meeting was led by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Xavier Vera; the manager of EP Petroecuador, Italo Cedeño; the Vice Minister of Hydrocarbons, Hugo Aguiar; the Vice Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Xavier Zambrano; the Technical Coordinator for Hydrocarbon Regulation and Control of the Non-Renewable Energy and Natural Resources Regulation and Control Agency, Mónica Ortiz; in addition to delegates from the Ministry of Finance, from the Technical Secretariat of Public-Private Association and Delegated Management; of the Planning Secretariat and the management team of EP Petroecuador. The president of the Firectory of Public Companies (EMCO EP), Hernán Luque, also participated virtually.

This is the first meeting of this type, so far in the Government, and it comes after the departure of former Minister Juan Carlos Bermeo and the arrival of current Minister Xavier Vera.

Cedeño added that as of January, the trend of low oil production was reversed, in part, due to the problems caused by the damage to the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System (SOTE), registered last year. “It is easy to see that during the last six years we have been declining the production of petroleum hydrocarbons; but we were able to recover production and during this month, after the start of production In the Ishpingo field, part of Block-43 ITT, in Orellana, we surpassed the barrier of 400,000 equivalent barrels per day”, he said.

For his part, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Xavier Vera, thanked the manager of EP Petroecuador for promoting this teamwork initiative. “It is a very strong company and hand in hand with us and under the guidelines of public policy we are going to achieve many milestones, this and the coming years. “The Ministry of Energy and Mines is here to work as a team. We must meet the goal of doubling production by the year 2025. It is a country project, without particular positions”, he pointed out.

Likewise, the president of the board of public companies (EMCO), H.Ernán Luque, said that from EMCO The projects that are beginning to take shape today and that have been proposed by the President of the Republic will be analyzed and made viable. “I want to congratulate Minister Xavier Vera and General Manager Italo Cedeño for this teamwork initiative, which is the path we have to follow in other ministries and public companies.