QUITO, July 21 - The Ecuadorean oil minister on Tuesday accused French oil company Perenco of breaking the law by planning to halt production and said the government will analyze the legal status of the firm in the country.
State-run oil firm Petroecuador seized control of Perenco's two oil blocks in the OPEC-member country last week, after the company decided to halt operations over a tax dispute with the government.
"Perenco ordered the suspension of activities in the fields, which contravenes (a previous) resolution ... that forbade the suspension," Oil Minister Germanico Pinto told reporters.
Pinto said the government is assessing "the legal implications" that the company may face for ordering its workers to halt production.
"The fields are by contract, owned by Perenco. What we've done is to put a system in place that allows us to continue with production," Pinto said.
A Perenco executive told Reuters over the weekend that the company had decided to sack its field workers because they were no longer following orders given by the company.
Ecuador has seized most of the crude oil that Perenco has been extracting since March in a bid to collect more than $350 million it says the company owes in windfall taxes.
Ecuador hiked the tax to 99 percent from 50 percent in 2007 as a way to pressure foreign oil companies to rework their extraction deals, but later lowered the tax to 70 percent.
The World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes accepted a request from Perenco in May to block any forceful collections until the center rules on the legality of the windfall tax.
Perenco extracts 22,000 barrels of oil per day from two blocks in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, or around 4.5 percent of the country's total output.
Burlington Resources, a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips (COP.N), has stakes in the two blocks operated by Perenco in Ecuador.
In 2006, Ecuador ended the contract it had with Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) and seized all its assets, after accusing the company of trying to sell part of an oil block without state authorization -- a claim that Occidental denied.
State-run oil firm Petroecuador seized control of Perenco's two oil blocks in the OPEC-member country last week, after the company decided to halt operations over a tax dispute with the government.
"Perenco ordered the suspension of activities in the fields, which contravenes (a previous) resolution ... that forbade the suspension," Oil Minister Germanico Pinto told reporters.
Pinto said the government is assessing "the legal implications" that the company may face for ordering its workers to halt production.
"The fields are by contract, owned by Perenco. What we've done is to put a system in place that allows us to continue with production," Pinto said.
A Perenco executive told Reuters over the weekend that the company had decided to sack its field workers because they were no longer following orders given by the company.
Ecuador has seized most of the crude oil that Perenco has been extracting since March in a bid to collect more than $350 million it says the company owes in windfall taxes.
Ecuador hiked the tax to 99 percent from 50 percent in 2007 as a way to pressure foreign oil companies to rework their extraction deals, but later lowered the tax to 70 percent.
The World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes accepted a request from Perenco in May to block any forceful collections until the center rules on the legality of the windfall tax.
Perenco extracts 22,000 barrels of oil per day from two blocks in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, or around 4.5 percent of the country's total output.
Burlington Resources, a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips (COP.N), has stakes in the two blocks operated by Perenco in Ecuador.
In 2006, Ecuador ended the contract it had with Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) and seized all its assets, after accusing the company of trying to sell part of an oil block without state authorization -- a claim that Occidental denied.
