ECUADOR CRUDE OIL OUTPUT TO RESUME NEXT MONTH
  Ecuador is due to resume limited crude oil
  output on May 8 when a new 43 km pipeline to neighbouring
  Colombia should be finished, an energy ministry spokesman said.
      Oil output was halted on March 5 by an earthquake which
  damaged 50 km of the main pipeline linking jungle oilfields at
  Lago Agrio to the Ecuadorean port of Balao on the Pacific.
      About 13 km of the new link, capable of carrying some
  50,000 barrels per day (bpd), has been built, he said.
      Ecuador pumped 245,000 to 250,000 bpd before the
  earthquake.
      The new link will connect Lago Agrio to Puerto Colon in
  Colombia, the starting point of Columbia's pipeline to the
  Pacific ocean port of Temuco.
      The government estimates it will take about four more
  months to repair the Lago Agrio to Balao pipeline and return
  output to normal levels, the spokesman said.
  

