Petroecuador faces political pressure amid output push.
Stephan Kueffner, Bloomberg News
QUITO
EerguiesNet.com 08 03 2022
Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso fired Petroecuador’s chief executive officer amid allegations of improper influencing as the state oil company tries to steer toward an ambitious production expansion.
Italo Cedeno was fired hours after he acknowledged in an interview with local media Monday that his wife had given him informal advice on hiring at the state oil company. President Lasso announced the decision to remove Cedeno via Twitter late Monday. Cedeno, a career oilman, was the second CEO Lasso appointed to lead the oil producer in the 14 months since he’s taken office.
Petroecuador, which accounts for close to 80% of Ecuador’s production, aims to double output by the end of 2025. The company faces pressure on multiple fronts, including from private-sector service providers, trade unions and indigenous communities. Demonstrators recently brought much of the country to a standstill and attacked oil installations, nearly halving production, to increase fuel subsidies for low-income Ecuadoreans.
Cedeno had filed a complaint before the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate allegations of influence trafficking and bribery related to a series of arrests and searches prosecutors carried out late July, Petroecuador said in a text message on Sunday. As the first case of graft under this presidency, it’s a black eye for Lasso, said Rene Ortiz, oil minister during the previous administration and a former OPEC secretary general.
Lasso will need to find a person he can trust that is honest and will continue to push toward transforming Petroecuador “into an efficient and modern company,” said Gonzalo Maldonado, a former Petroecuador CEO.
Whoever ends up replacing Cedeno as the next CEO will likely continue the task of trying to double output by the end of Lasso’s term, both Ortiz and Maldonado agreed.
Cedeno on July 20 announced a series of tenders through next January to increase production to close to 800,000 barrels a day.
bloomberg.com 08 02 2022
