Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, who is also the current President of the Organization of Petroleum Countries, is reported to have threatened to nationalize foreign oil operations unless companies undergo contracts posting state control in the sector.

It is the newest issue emerged related to private investors by Correa, the leftist leader who shocked markets with a $4.5 billion bond default in 2008 and also has introduced stringent government control of mining.

Ever since Venezuela's socialist leader Hugo Chavez in 2007 nationalized multibillion-dollar oil projects and nudged ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips out of the country, leaders belonging to Latin American nations have called for more strengthened state control over natural resources.

In addition, the president approved the resignation received from its minister in charge of energy and current OPEC President, Germanico Pinto, and his finance minister Elsa Viteri, as part of changes in his government, now in its fourth year, a ministry advisor and a government source revealed.

Pinto is rumored to be replaced by Wilson Pastor, head of state-run Petroamazonas.

"Expropriation does not mean confiscation. Confiscation means to take by force without the correct compensation. Here we will compensate them economically, but if they don't want to adapt to the terms of the country, and then let them go, we don't need them," Correa quoted, in the interview Monday.