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Friday, March 19, 2010

Ecuador: Petroecuador '09 Profit Down 35% To $3.28 Billion

By Mercedes Alvaro

Dow Jones Newswires

QUITO -(Dow Jones)- Ecuador's state-owned oil company Petroecuador posted a profit of $3.28 billion last year, a decrease of 35% from the $5.07 billion profit posted in 2008, the company said Friday.

A high-level Petroecuador official told Dow Jones Newswires that the decline in profits was due to a fall in the price of oil.

Last year the average price of Petroecuador's Oriente crude oil for export was $53.24 a barrel against the $83.96 a barrel registered in 2008.

The price of Napo crude oil, meanwhile, was $52.04 a barrel against the $76.07 registered in 2008.

The company's revenue totaled $8.19 billion last year, while its costs totaled $4.91 billion.

Revenue from crude-oil exports reached $4.46 billion in 2009, while oil-derivatives exports totaled $697 million last year, the company said.

The revenue included money earned from exporting Napo crude from former Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) fields that the government seized in May 2006.

Petroecuador's 2009 total revenue represented 16% of Ecuador's gross domestic product. According to the official data, assets in Petroecuador, the Ecuador's largest company, last year totaled $7.4 billion.

The Petroecuador official said that about $2.8 billion of the revenues reached last year were transferred to Ecuador's fiscal budget.

Oil is Ecuador's main export item and budget revenue source.

The figures have been rounded.