Oil firm looks to Ecuador

State-owned PetroChina is negotiating with Ecuador for future oil purchases of 96,000 barrels per day over two years, in a move to diversify its oil import sources.

PetroChina is talking with the South American country for an advance payment of $1 billion for the future oil purchases, Diego Borja, minister of economic policy coordination of Ecuador, told Dow Jones.

As part of the negotiations, Ecuador is asking that China uses the crude oil for final consumption and doesn't sell it to Peru or Chile as that would distort the market, Borja said.