Petroecuador Approves Merger of Subsidiaries

Ecuador’s state oil company Petroecuador has approved the merger of its Petroamazonas and Petroproduccion operating units as part of a long ongoing company restructuring. Petroamazonas, created from the nationalized assets of US oil company Occidental Petroleum in 2006, will absorb Petroproduccion, the exploration and production unit of the state oil company. Petroecuador hired Deloitte in 2010 to advise it in the restructuring process and the merger of these units stems from one of Deloitte’s recommendations, the non-renewable resources minister, Wilson Pastor, told a local daily earlier this week. The merger has already been implemented in some areas such as purchases and hiring and it’s expected to be completed by the end of 2012.