Ecuador calls for consultants to help state oil firms merger

Ecuador's energy and non-renewable natural resources ministry has launched a call for parties interested in a consultancy tender to aid the government in the merger of state oil company Petroecuador and state hydrocarbons E&P operator Petroamazonas.

“Given the magnitude of the project, the need has been identified to have a company or specialized firm to contribute with its experience to the success of this project,” the ministry said in a statement.

The strategy is to create one company that integrates strategic planning, upstream, midstream, downstream and services units, the ministry said. It added that the tender depended on the approval of a solicited Inter-American Development Bank loan (IDB).

The project would be divided into two phases. First, the winner would carry out a diagnosis of the hydrocarbons sector and the state companies, followed by design and evaluation of the merger proposal and planning for its implementation. A second phase would see the merger, follow-up, evaluation and post-merger actions to capture value.

Both phases will be tendered separately, but if the winner of the the first tender does a good job it could be directly contracted for the second one. Initial expressions of interest are due June 21. 

President Lenín Moreno has revived production sharing contracts and called for the merger of Petroecuador and Petroamazonas. Former president Rafael Correa created the two companies as part of his push for greater state control of hydrocarbons.

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In related news, Petroecuador awarded a spot exporting contract to Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company for 3.96Mb (+/-5%) with a bid of WTI+US$3.09.

Petroecuador invited 42 companies and received seven offers, it said. The contract , the company’s second this year, is for 11 shipments of around 360,000b apiece for delivery between July and September.