President of Ecuador appoints Fernando Santos as new Minister of Energy

the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lassopossessed on Monday the lawyer Fernando Santos as the new minister of Energy and Mines of the country, the third person to hold that portfolio since the president took office in May 2021.

Santos, a lawyer with experience in the oil industry and a former minister, takes over from Xavier Verawho resigned Friday amid an investigation into allegations that he fixed jobs at the state oil company Petroecuador in exchange for bribes.

Santos has pledged to increase domestic oil production – a key objective of the Lasso administration – from current levels of 493,000 barrels per day (bpd).

“You have set yourself a goal, Mr. President, to increase production and we are going to make every effort,” Santos said at his inauguration ceremony. “Today it is difficult to extract (oil) with scientific and technical methods that require capital and technology.”

“You have to call the private company in well-negotiated contracts and in conditions of winning and winning,” he added.

The government has said it wants oil production to reach 750,000 bpd by the end of its term in 2025.

Santos previously served as the South American country’s energy minister in 1987 and was a ministerial adviser. He has also worked as head of legal affairs at the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC).

He also spoke about the need to move oil pipelines in the country’s Amazon region that are threatened by erosion, which has caused oil spills, and improvements in refining works.

Santos said that he agrees with the approval of a community consultation law for extractive projects, one of the issues of the anti-government protests that affected oil exports in June this year, but that the contracts already signed must be respected.

“We have to make them see that the benefit of mining development can be mutual for the population and for the country in general,” he added.