Petroecuador

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Petroecuador (Empresa Estatal Petróleos del Ecuador) is the national oil company of Ecuador. It is a state-owned enterprise, founded on September 26, 1989. It is the successor to CEPE (Corporación Estatal Petrolera Ecuatoriana) which was formed in 1972.

It operates three divisions:

Petroproducción for exploration and extraction
Petroindustrial for refinery operations
Petrocomercial for transportation and marketing of refined products to the internal market in Ecuador.

Petroecuador is charged with managing the operation of the Trans-Ecuadorian oil pipeline network, Sistema de Oleoducto Transecuatorian or SOTE, built in 1972 for Texaco-Gulf.

1 Industrial Accident
2 Controversy over impact on environment in Amazon
3 See Also
4 External Links

[edit] Industrial Accident

On February 26, 1998 there was an explosion and fire at the Petroecuador pipeline in Esmeraldas, a port city in northwest Ecuador [1] [2]

[edit] Controversy over impact on environment in Amazon

Petroecuador has been the subject of controversy over the impact of exploration and pipeline operations on the environment and Huaorani and Cofan indigenous peoples within the Amazon basin in Ecuador's Oriente (eastern) region, where oil drilling operations take place in previously roadless rainforest. Advocacy groups such as [Amazon Watch] and [ChevronToxico] have attempted to document the oil spills, ecological damage and human impacts of these operations.

Prof. Judith Kimerling[3] of CUNY School of Law in 1991 published a book Amazon Crude (ISBN 0960935851) which details many of these problems. online slideshow (Java required)

In response to these reports, a class-action lawsuit was initiated against ChevronTexaco in the U.S. over their involvement in these operations. A U.S. court ruled the case should be heard in Ecuador. A new action was begun in Ecuador in 2003. That case is currently before the Ecuadorean courts. In March 2007 Chevron issued a statement saying it would not settle the suit.

Texaco's statement on the class action suit link