The president of Ecuador’s state-owned petroleum company has resigned after new figures promised a fresh decline in oil production from Opec’s newest member.

Fernando Zurita, a naval admiral who was appointed by Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s leftist president, in November to stamp out alleged corruption and tighten security at Petroecuador, blamed the expected shortfall on the failure of Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA to deliver an oil rig.

On Monday Mr Zurita revealed Petroecuador would only be able to produce 172,000 barrels of oil a day this year, down from a previous estimate of 185,000 b/d. ... Read full article