Ecuador looks East in new oil refinery

QUITO – China and Iran are interested in investing in a six-billion-dollar oil refinery Ecuador is building with Venezuelan help on the Pacific coast, President Rafael Correa said Saturday.

“That refinery is being built with (Venezuela’s state giant) PDVSA although Iran and China also are interested,” the Ecuadoran leader said in his weekly television address. The megaplant on the coast, on which Correa and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez broke ground Wednesday, will be on line fully in 2013 and will be able to produce 300 000 barrels of oil per day.Correa said Iran could be involved and shrugged off any concern that it might cause.”Iran has a lot of experience in their oil field, it has been a producer for a long time, almost a century…and China is the leading oil consumer, so we will have a guaranteed market,” said Correa, a leftist economist by training.”Somebody may say: Iran, Axis of Evil.But what do I care what other countries think? We have to be masters of our own destiny.We have nothing against Iran.Iran has done nothing to us,” Correa said.Venezuela and Ecuador are the Latin American members of OPEC.Nampa-AFPThe megaplant on the coast, on which Correa and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez broke ground Wednesday, will be on line fully in 2013 and will be able to produce 300 000 barrels of oil per day.Correa said Iran could be involved and shrugged off any concern that it might cause.”Iran has a lot of experience in their oil field, it has been a producer for a long time, almost a century…and China is the leading oil consumer, so we will have a guaranteed market,” said Correa, a leftist economist by training.”Somebody may say: Iran, Axis of Evil.But what do I care what other countries think? We have to be masters of our own destiny.We have nothing against Iran.Iran has done nothing to us,” Correa said.Venezuela and Ecuador are the Latin American members of OPEC.Nampa-AFP