Near the bottom of the article they give a rough outline of a couple of oil deals. The interesting point is that the deals are not the same, including the % of windfall tax. Instead of the minimum 70% one is 50%. They also threw in longer concession periods, lower taxes etc into the mix. So while the windfall tax was imposed for oil it was clearly part of the overall basket that was negotiated. Probably the most important part for us was that the % was negotiable as part of the mix.

... Been There

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ECUADOR WRAPS UP TALKS ON NEW OIL CONTRACTS

Sun Mar 9, 2008 1:41am GMT

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador has concluded negotiations with foreign oil companies to increase state control of their operations and the new contracts will go to President Rafael Correa for ratification, a top government negotiator told Reuters on Saturday.

Jose Sanchez, chief of the state negotiating team, said talks had finished with Spain's Repsol YPF (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), Brazil's Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research) and France's Perenco. On Friday deals were reached with Andes Petroleum (0857.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) and PetroOriental, both owned by Chinese companies.

"We've completed the negotiations and turned over the results to the authorities to see if we reach a final agreement," Sanchez said.
Correa is on an aggressive drive to rework deals in key sectors such as oil, telecommunications and mining.

Ecuador, the fifth largest oil producer in Latin America with output of 500,000 barrels a day, is following other Latin American countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Bolivia that have raised taxes and royalties on miners and oil companies, or nationalized their national resources sectors.

Private miners and oil companies have benefited from high prices in recent years and states have moved to receive more of the windfall profit. Oil prices have risen to records of more than $106 per barrel.

Sanchez declined to give details of the new contracts but the government has said that the talks were aimed at increasing its stakes in the Ecuador operations of foreign oil companies and obtaining guarantees on new investment.

In exchange, the company's concessions were to be lengthened and taxes reduced.

Oil Minister Galo Chiriboga told Reuters that Correa was the person who would ratify the agreements.

In the case of Andes Petroleum, Ecuador will maintain its current 28 percent stake in the Tarapoa block in the Amazon and agreed the company would pay to the government 50 percent of its windfall profit from high oil prices.

Tarapoa produces 44,000 barrels per day.

In the case of PetroOriental, the government stake in its two ventures will rise from 14 percent to 25 percent, and from 17 percent to 28 percent. The company will pay to the government 70 percent of the difference between market prices for crude and the contract price.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia, Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Alan Raybould)