Ecuador make oil bid threat

Ecuador will open bidding for a major oil project in a jungle nature reserve next June if the poor Andean country does not raise international funding to abandon the proposal, the oil minister says.

The government is seeking a minimum of €231m a year from the international community for 10 years not to drill in the Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha fields in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador’s north-eastern jungle.

The money is to compensate Ecuador for income it would have generated by drilling for oil at the site.

The jungle area, which holds close to a billion barrels of crude, is part of a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, said by some to have more varieties of plant life than the US and Canada combined.