{"id":1413802,"date":"2022-03-31T19:00:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T23:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1413802"},"modified":"2022-03-31T19:00:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T23:00:20","slug":"ecuador-lost-nearly-5-billion-in-china-oil-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ecuador-lost-nearly-5-billion-in-china-oil-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador Lost Nearly $5 Billion in China Oil Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fecuador-lost-nearly-5-billion-in-china-oil-deal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1413802&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">The oversight committee of the Congress of Ecuador revealed in a 200-page report published on Wednesday the country lost about $3,60 per barrel of oil in a deal with China, resulting in total losses of nearly $5 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Then-President Rafael Correa signed a series of agreements with the Chinese Communist Party between 2009 and 2016 giving China below-market prices on the country\u2019s petroleum in exchange for loans. Correa\u2019s tenure was marked by the country aligning itself with the world\u2019s far-left authoritarian forces, primarily Venezuela and Cuba but also including close partnerships with Russia and China.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The Argentine news outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.infobae.com\/america\/america-latina\/2022\/03\/30\/ecuador-fue-perjudicado-en-casi-5-mil-millones-de-dolares-por-un-acuerdo-que-firmo-rafael-correa-con-china\/\">Infobae<\/a>, citing the congressional oversight report, said that the current government found that Ecuador had borrowed over $18 billion in loans from China at interest rates far higher than what the country could have gotten from agreements with banking institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The interest rates Correa agreed to were upwards of seven percent \u201cwithout including financial costs,\u201d according to the news organization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo pay for those loans, the country committed, through 2024, to hand over 1.325 billion barrels of crude to the Asian corporations Petrochina International Company Limited, Unipec\u00a0Asia Co Limited y PTT International Trading Pte. Ltd.,\u201d Infobae noted.<\/p>\n<p>Ecuador agreed to a fixed price for the barrels unrelated to the actual market value of the crude oil significantly below what it could have sold the oil for to other buyers. The report found that, even today, Ecuador is selling 87 percent of its crude to the Chinese corporations at the previously agreed-to rates lower than the actual price of the oil, an especially egregious loss for the country given currently skyrocketing prices. Ecuador has sold China 1.174 billion barrels so far as part of the deal.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The head of the congressional oversight committee, Fernando Villavicencio, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elcomercio.com\/actualidad\/politica\/fiscalizacion-perjuicio-preventa-petroleo-petrochina.html\">lamented<\/a> the findings as \u201cthe greatest corruption scandal in the country\u2019s oil history\u201d on Wednesday, according to Ecuador\u2019s\u00a0<em>El Comercio\u00a0<\/em>newspaper. The lawmaker noted that Correa sold the deal to the Ecuadorian people when he signed it as a way to do away with expensive middlemen brokering oil deals and create strategic alliances with economic powerhouses like China.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was completely the opposite,\u201d Villavicencio said of the results. \u201cThe Petrochina case reveals that the Correa government was the middleman government. It took out debts with interest rates at over seven percent and that debt was paid with oil at discounted prices.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20468810\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-624153304.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>File\/China\u2019s President Xi Jinping (L) and Ecuador\u2019s President Rafael Correa arrive at the facilities of the Integrated National Center of Security Ecu 911 in Quito, to monitor the inauguration of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, built by the Chinese state-owned engineering and construction company Sinohydro, on November 18, 2016. (JUAN CEVALLOS\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Villavicencio said that evidence suggested some of the funds lost went to kickbacks to various former Correa officials \u2013 that is to say, that oil company officials <a href=\"https:\/\/amazonwatch.org\/news\/2021\/0605-a-predator-called-gunvor-in-the-amazon\">bribed<\/a> Correa executives in exchange for discounts on the oil itself. Among the evidence is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/criminal-fraud\/file\/1388211\/download\">declaration<\/a> in U.S. court by a former official at the European oil trading corporation Gunvor, Raymond Kohut, that he \u201cwillfully and corruptly agreed to offer and pay bribes on behalf of Trading Company [Gunvor] to, and for the benefit of, Ecuadorian officials, in order to obtain and retain business for [Gunvor].\u201d The bribes allegedly totaled $70 million.<\/p>\n<p>The oversight committee announced it would send the report to Ecuador\u2019s Attorney General and the New York court system to investigate the alleged bribery.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s reports follow years of investigations following the end of Correa\u2019s presidency on the Chinese oil deals. In 2018, Ecuador\u2019s prosecutor general <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/latin-america\/2018\/10\/15\/report-ecuador-lost-2-billion-greatest-heist-history\/\">estimated<\/a> that the country had lost as much as $2 billion in the discounts Correa promised the Chinese companies. Ecuadorian courts attempted to get Correa to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2018\/02\/02\/ecuadors-socialist-ex-president-testify-shady-china-oil-deals\/\">testify<\/a> on the agreements that year, but Correa had since moved to Belgium, where he claimed that the government of successor Lenin Moreno was persecuting him for his socialist beliefs. Moreno belongs to the same political party as Correa, though he ordered extensive investigations into corruption during his predecessor\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n<p>Ecuador attempted to order Correa to testify in February 2018; by July, courts had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2018\/07\/04\/ecuador-orders-arrest-socialist-ex-president-rafael-correa\/\">issued<\/a> an arrest warrant over an entirely different scandal: the accusation that Correa had paid Colombian thugs to abduct an opposition leader.<\/p>\n<p>Correa\u2019s presidency featured extensive dealings with China. In addition to the financial deal, revelations surfacing after he vacated the office exposed the creation of a totalitarian national surveillance system known as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2019\/04\/25\/china-got-huawei-to-build-ecuador-camera-system\/\">ECU-911<\/a>,\u201d featuring 4,300 cameras hidden throughout the country to monitor citizens. The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei reportedly helped build the system, which became public after Moreno gave the\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em> an inside look at the program before shutting down the agency administering it.<\/p>\n<p>Lenin Moreno\u2019s presidency ended in 2021. Voters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/latin-america\/2021\/04\/12\/ecuador-elects-conservative-president-saying-never-again-socialist-past\/\">chose<\/a> Guillermo Lasso, the conservative candidate who lost to Moreno following Correa\u2019s departure, to replace him. President Lasso has since further supported investigations into Correa\u2019s dealings as president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The oversight committee of the Congress of Ecuador revealed in a 200-page report published on Wednesday the country lost about $3,60 per barrel of oil in a deal with China,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1413802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1413802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1413802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1413802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1413802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}