Image: Reuters

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's state-run oil company Petroecuador plans to sign a deal in the coming days to reschedule crude deliveries to a unit of Thailand's PTT after delays since last year, Petroecuador chief executive Gonzalo Maldonado said on Friday.

Most of Ecuador's oil exports are committed to PTT and China's PetroChina through 2024 after President Rafael Correa's government obtained long-term credits backed by oil deliveries. Critics say the terms of those loans were unfavorable to Ecuador.

Ecuador still has to deliver around 200 million barrels to PTT and PetroChina to fulfill the agreements.

Maldonado said Petroecuador has to deliver a total of 60 million barrels to PTT. While that amount is expected to remain unchanged if the deal is signed, under the proposed rescheduling deal Ecuador would postpone the delivery of 17 million barrels originally planned for 2021 and 2022 to 2023.

That would enable Petroecuador to sell more cargoes in the spot market and take advantage of rising crude prices.

"We will continue to be very active in the spot market because it has gone very well for us," Maldonado said.

Ecuador's energy minister Rene Ortiz last week said the country was negotiating with PTT.

PTT did not respond to a request for comment.

Crude exports are a critical source of revenue for Ecuador's government, which last year received a $6.5 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.

Petroecuador is not negotiating changes to its commitments to PetroChina, to which it still has to deliver 140 million barrels by 2024, Maldonado said. It must also deliver 11 million barrels to China's Unipec by 2024.

Maldonado said Petroecuador reached a deal with privately-held OCP to use export facilities at Ecuador's Balao port, which can receive large vessels. That would let Petroecuador ship more crude at once, saving on logistics costs.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-20

 

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Looks like Petroecuador is playing Thailand PTT the same way PTT played Malaysia Petronas. 

The saying 'what goes around comes around.'