Ecuador is one of Latin America’s largest oil exporters, with net oil exports estimated at 305,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2009. The oil sector accounts for about 50 percent of Ecuador’s export earnings and about one-third of all tax revenues. Despite being an oil exporter, Ecuador must still import refined petroleum products due to the lack of sufficient domestic refining capacity to meet local demand. As a result, the country does not always enjoy the full benefits of high world oil prices: while these high prices bring Ecuador greater export revenues, they also increase the country’s refined product import bill. In 2007, Ecuador re-joined the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), after leaving the organization at the end of 1992. Ecuador is the smallest oil producer in OPEC. According to Oil and Gas Journal? (OGJ), Ecuador held proven oil reserves of 6.5 billion barrels in January 2010 – a significant increase from 2009 estimates of 4.7 billion barrels, and the third largest reserves in South America after Venezuela and Brazil. Ecuador is the fifth-largest producer of oil in South America, producing 486,000 bbl/d of oil in 2009 (almost all of which was crude oil), down from 2006 highs of 536,000 bbl/d and decreasing – first half 2010 data indicate that Ecuador’s average oil production was 470,000 bbl/d.