Saturday March 21, 04:02 PM
Repsol-YPF pays Ecuador $88 mln in back taxes
QUITO (AFP) - Spain's Repsol (Madrid: REP.MC - news) -YPF oil company has paid Ecuador 88.9 million dollars in back windfall taxes, a fraction of the 444 million Quito has requested, Oil Minister Derlis Palacios said Friday.
Palacios told reporters a second payment would be made in September and the rest would be paid quarterly through 2013. A Repsol-YPF spokesman confirmed to AFP payment had been made.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa implemented a windfall tax hike shortly after taking office in early 2007, but has since reduced the margin to 50 percent amid renegotiations with foreign oil firms.
In February, the Spanish-Argentine petroleum company accepted to pay its debt after Correa ordered a legal action that could lead to a freeze of the assets of Repsol-YPF and France's Perenco.
Earlier this month, Ecuador impounded 70 percent of Perenco's production, saying it would go to pay the firm's 338-million-dollar tax debt, but added it was open to settlement negotiations.
The smallest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Ecuador averaged a daily production of 505,000 barrels of oil in 2008.
Foreign oil companies, including Perenco, Repsol-YPF, Brazil's Petrobras (PETR3.SA - news) and China's Andes Petroleum, account for half of Ecuador's oil extraction.
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