Ecuador, Chile sign agreements on petroleum cooperation, tariff cuts

Ecuador and Chile on Tuesday signed an agreement on petroleum cooperation and extended a trade deal.

Chile's state-owned oil producer ENAP signed a deal to buy crude oil from Ecuador's Petroecuador, refine the raw material into liquefied natural gas, gasoline and diesel, and then sell the products back to Ecuador.

The ENAP also agreed to invest 36 million U.S. dollars in oil exploration in Ecuador.

Ecuadorian President Alfredo Palacio and his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet attended the official signing ceremony.

Chile, which has no oil fields of its own, seeks to boost its oil production to 17,000 barrels a day from 14,000 barrels a day through the investment in Ecuador

The presidents also attended the signing ceremony for the extension of the Economic Complementation Agreement that was first signed in 1995.

The revised deal eliminates tariffs on 97 percent of goods traded between the two nations.

Among those goods excluded from the tariff cuts are beef, key dairy products, rice, sugar and maize.

Source: Xinhua