Ecuador to refine petrol in Venezuela to cut costs
Ecuador would refine its petrol in Venezuela in order to cut costs, Ecuador's Energy Minister Ivan Rodriguez, said on Sunday.

The minister told a local television he was confident that he would soon strike a deal on refining Ecuador's petrol in Venezuela, which would allow his country to cut refining costs by 300 million U.S. dollars.

"At present, we are interested in cutting the costs of imported crude oil derivatives," the energy minister said. "When petrol prices rise... far from helping us, it prejudices us," he said after returning from last week's visit to Caracas.

Rodriguez said he expected the processing of crude in the refineries of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, to begin within 45 days.

Ecuador has an energy product deficit of 1.5 billion dollars, which the minister said was "not just due to imports, but also due to smuggling."

Ecuador reformed its hydrocarbons law last month, under which excess petrol profits would be redistributed between multinational companies and the government.

Ecuador also rescinded its contract with Occidental Petroleum Corp., a U.S.-based oil company, whose fields are now in the hands of the state.

However, the Andean country denied it would nationalize its oil sector, like Venezuela and Bolivia.