THE OIL GRAB IN ECUADOR

the 79-year-old dictator of Ecuador, has fled his country following a military coup. The new ruler is General Guillermo Rodriguez Lara, who has abandoned next June's elections. Behind the military takeover is international intrigue surrounding Ecuador's wealthy oll industry. This two-part series by the Prensa Latina news service explains some of the background to the Ecuadorian oil bonanza.

The Ecuadorian petroleum "festival, as some international circles call it, is not so much a festival as an orgy, in which the biggest oil companies of the capitalist world take part, as do many governments, including those of the United States, Great Britain, Holland and Japan.

In the midst of obscure machinations, different mechanisms and pressures, Ecuador's oil orgy has been notable for the systematic violation the country's laws and the constantly increasing squandering of this underdeveloped country's great oil resources.

However, we do know that in less than three years E Ecuador, which had never produced single barrel of oil before, is now producing 60,000 barrels daily from 50 wells, an average of 1,200 barrels from each well, while in the US the daily average is scarcely 14 barrels per well.

Moreover, drilling has taken place in only two of the 100 which cover in inc whole hole try concessions in the area and most of the Pacific coast. Wells have been drilled only in a small area, while the amount of land granted as concessions to the oil companies is equal to 90,000 square kilometres —a third of the whole country.

For 40 years the country has been accustomed to routine which raised no suspicions-the coming and going of oil companies that obtained concessions. and later left, declaring they had not found oil either in the E or on the coast, the except for the deposits on. Santa Elena Peninsula, which did not amount to very much according to the Anglo - Ecuadorian Oilfields Company, traditionally given the concession in this area.

Important chapters in the mysterious history of Ecuadorian oil include the E concession of 2.5 million hectares given in 1931 to the Leonard Exploration Company, and the concession of 10 million hectares given in 1937 to the Anglo Saxo.

The Lenord Company simply a subsidiary of Standard Oil, New Jersey, and the Anglo Saxo of the Royal Dutch Shell, the big Anglo-Dutch company.

The results of surveys done by the Leonard Company over a period of six years were never made known, and the Royal Dutch Shell, profiting from the economic hegemony and influence then possessed in Ecuador by British capital, took over from the Leonard in 1937.

When the Leonard's contract was cancelled because it had not carried out the required agreements, the Anglo Saxo took over with all its equipment, and later transferred its concession to the Shell Company which, after 1l years' surveying (they had the right to explore for only five years), calmly declared it had found no oil in the E.

Despite the fact that in 1948 it returned the 4 million hectares it then held, Shell obtained new concession for the same amount of land, this time association with Rockefeller's the presence in the government a man in whom it had er fidence: Galo Plaza Las Thission companies werefor giver Dermission to survey for five years and to exploit any oil they decided ears. Leave 1950 leave the ountry, declaring once more th:

ere was no oil in the misi