Ecuador's defense minister resigned on Friday during protests which have crippled oil production and forced the country to ask Venezuela for a loan of crude oil so it can keep up exports, officials said according to Reuters. Ecuador will seek a $400 million emergency loan from the Latin American Reserve Fund to avoid balance of payments problems resulting from the protest in two provinces and import $140 million worth of fuel, Economy Minister Magdalena Barreiro said. The protests pushed U.S. crude oil futures up $2 above $65 a barrel in New York on Friday. Ecuador is South America's fifth largest producer of crude oil and, after Venezuela, is the second-largest South American supplier of oil to the United States. President Alfredo Palacio declared a state of emergency on Wednesday and ordered troops to restore order in Sucumbios and Orellana provinces where protesters began to invade oil camps, sabotage equipment and block highways on Monday. But the worst crisis for Palacio since he took office in April worsened on Friday when one of the men in charge of the state of emergency, Defense Minister Solon Espinoza, resigned. --more 2333 Local Time 2033 GMT
