Ecuador awards 3 marginal oil fields

QUITO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Ecuador has awarded three marginal oil fields holding more than 24 million barrels of crude in reserves to two private consortiums, Oil and Mining Minister Galo Chiriboga said on Wednesday.

"In the first three years the companies have agreed to invest more than $220 million." Chiriboga told reporters in Quito.

He added that in the next six months Ecuador expects to boost output by 10,000 barrel per day from the awarded fields, and that the state will have an average participation of 71 percent in those contracts.

A fourth field, Armadillo, with 9 million barrels in reserves, is close to be awarded to another foreign consortium, Chiriboga said.

The Puma field, with 13.8 million barrels in reserves was awarded to the Pegaso Petroleum Consortium while the Singue and Pucuna fields with a total of 10 million barrels in reserves were awarded to the Amazon Petroleum Consortium.

Both companies have shares from Colombia and Venezuelan firms.

Ecuador, South America's fifth largest oil producer, has an output of around 500,000 bpd.

(Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by David Gregorio)