Petroecuador Board Appoints New President

The board of Ecuador's state oil firm Petroecuador has appointed Fernando Gonzalez Williams, a lawyer, to replace Luis Roman as company president. Petroecuador said in a statement.

Roman resigned in early February, alleging that Petroecuador is not in the necessary financial condition to maintain its operations and needs more autonomy from the economy and finance ministry.

Gonzalez is a professional from Guayaquil with more than 35 years experience in law courts and private companies. He specialized in oil politics and legislation in Venezuela and worked as a legal advisor at Ecuador's state oil corporation CEPE, the statement said.

However, Gonzalez's appointment has been rejected by workers and oil sector professionals, who say Petroecuador's president should be a well-known figure in the oil industry, local paper El Universo reported.

Petroecuador's board also appointed Jaime Crow Montalvo as VP of Petroecuador's E&P arm Petroproduccion. Crow has performed various technical duties at CEPE and Petroecuador and worked in the private sector for oil companies. He has a Masters in Engineering from Brazil's Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) federal university.

Finally, the board appointed lawyer Pedro Jose Moscoso as VP of Petroecuador's commercialization arm Petrocomercial. Moscoso was Petrocomercial northern region manager and has worked in the public and private sectors.

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