Repsol-YPF pays Ecuador $ 88 mm in back taxes, more to come
Spain's Repsol-YPF oil company has paid Ecuador $ 88.9 mm in back windfall taxes, a fraction of the $ 444 mm Quito
has requested, Oil Minister Derlis Palacios said.
Palacios told a second payment would be made in September and the rest would be paid quarterly through 2013. A
Repsol-YPF spokesman confirmed to AFP payment had been made.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa implemented a windfall tax hike shortly after taking office in early 2007, but has
since reduced the margin to 50 % amid renegotiations with foreign oil firms.
In February, the Spanish-Argentine petroleum company accepted to pay its debt after Correa ordered a legal action
that could lead to a freeze of the assets of Repsol-YPF and France's Perenco. Earlier this month, Ecuador impounded
70 % of Perenco's production, saying it would go to pay the firm's $ 338-mm tax debt, but added it was open to
settlement negotiations.
The smallest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Ecuador averaged a daily production
of 505,000 barrels of oil in 2008.
Foreign oil companies, including Perenco, Repsol-YPF, Brazil's Petrobras and China's Andes Petroleum, account for
half of Ecuador's oil extraction.
