China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has agreed to help finance the construction of a $12 billion refinery project in Ecuador, the South American country's government said Saturday.

Ecuador has been in talks with China's biggest oil producer for a year about funding the 300,000-barrel-per-day Pacifico project, which aims to start output in 2017 and is a joint venture between Ecuador and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.

"We've worked to have a third partner ... and this third partner will be no one more and no one less than the biggest oil company in the world, China's CNPC," Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas said in a government report.

He said the refinery project was progressing well.

"Above all, we've advanced a lot in the realization of investments, and they comprise capital contributions from the (original) partners and the new partner," Glas said. He did not give more details of the project, nor of its funding.

State-run Petroecuador has a 51 percent stake in Pacifico, and PDVSA holds the rest. Both companies have agreed to come up with 30 percent of the necessary financing, while the remainder is being sought from external partners.

The government in Quito has said construction is in its first phase and that the project is 21 percent complete.

Reuters