He Next March 23 is the deadline for fulfilling the sentence imposed by the Court of Justice in Sucumbíos in favor of 9 girls from the Amazon, who demanded that they exclude 447 Petroecuador lighters that pollute the environment. Despite this, This March 15th, the Minister of Energy, Fernando Santos, announced that he would declare the tender for the collection of accompanying gas (which is now burned in lighters) invalid due to problems in the process called by Petroecuador.

This is happening, in the midst of protests and discomfort of residents due to the failure of the state company Petroecuador, concerns of the Ministry of Environmental Protectionon that topic and the emphatic protest that Amazon Tech, the sole winner of the tender, raised after learning of the Government’s decision.

Minister Santos explained that the tender will be declared invalid, but that this does not mean a violation of the penalty, because according to his reading the expiration date On March 23, you should start putting out the lighters, not so that they are already completely extinguished. In any case, he said that 40 lighters are ready to be extinguished. For the official, the process of extinguishing the lighter is different from the failed tender award process.

According to Santos, manager of Petroecuador, María Elisa Soledispa, indicated that previous administrations did not respect issues such as board reporting, establish a budget allocation and request a guarantee of faithful performance. He assured that, after the tender is declared void, a new invitation will be issued immediately. And that, therefore, the new allocation will be next May.

Meanwhile, Gavin Clarkson, representative of the North American company Amazon Tech, which participated and won the competition for the industrialization of gas from flares in clusters 1, 2 and 3 (containing 167 flares from the Sacha, Indillana, Shushufindi, Libertador, Oso , Yuralpa blocks, Auca, Armadillo, Palo Azul), precisely explained to the affected residents of Sucumbíos that despite the victory, Petroecuador did not complete the signing of the corresponding award. It should have taken about 15 days for the process to be completed, but 117 days have already passed, and it has not been fulfilled and he even believes that it could be cancelled.

Gavin Clarkson (d) and William Stills (i), representatives of Amazon Tech, were surprised by the government’s decision to cancel the tender to capture lighter gas in the Amazon. Photo: Patricia Sandoval

Clarkson said that the company has 700 million dollars for investments and that even, in a week (after the award of the contract), they were able to comply with the closure of the first lighter. Namely, before the expiry of the imposed sentence: “Hello, Petroecuador, we are waiting,” he said.

For Clarkson, “if Petroecuador declares null and void, due to corruption or bureaucratic incompetence, and the first cancer victim dies, it should be considered a murder victim.” and someone should go to jail. This is an environmental crime.”

It is that on July 29, 2021, the Provincial Court of Justice in Sucumbíos accepted the action to protect the girls and ordered the Ecuadorian state to eliminate, within 18 months, all lighters that are close to the population. In addition, the court found that in relation to other lighters, which are not near cities, their gradual removal must be carried out by December 2030.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection is also familiar with the problem. In a letter sent on March 10 to Petroecuador’s current manager, María Elisa Soledispa, he asked her to send an urgent update on the progress of closing the lighter.

In a letter sent to Soledispa, the Ministry of Environmental Protection states that the Plan and dynamics of the gradual and progressive abolition of traditional lighters have been requested on several occasions. Also, after the said plan was submitted on August 1, 2022, EP Petroecuador submitted an easier elimination schedule, which was followed.

for his part, Donald Moncayo, the father of one of the plaintiff girls, expressed his regret that the punishment has not been carried out so far and prefer to exist more lighters than before.

For Moncay, it is very clear that the Government represented by Petroecuador, the Ministry, and even the President of the Republic himself do not comply with the sentence, and he did not rule out going to court again to sue the authorities.

He explained that for 59 years gas has been burned in the burners, and he believes that the discrepancy may be due to the fact that there are important interests of gas importers who do not want to use the accompanying gas that is now burned in the burners.

He added that in a few days there will be a hearing where the execution of the sentence will be checked. He also warned that Petroecuador said it had already complied with 80% of the lighters, but explained that this was a lie. The only thing they did was cancel the 47 lighters that were unused. “Not a single cubic meter was burned,” he said.

this afternoon, Amazon Tech was surprised by Minister Santos’ announcement and assures that it is evaluating its legal options.

He explained that they won the competition in all circumstances.Conditions set by Petroecuador. “There are no good reasons to declare a tender invalid, only bad reasons,” said Gavin Clarkson.

Plan of Amazon Tech is to capture around 123 million cubic feet of gas and convert it into petrol, LPG and electricity and sell it to a state-owned company. They believe that with the high technology they use, they could put out 167 lighters in just 27 months.

According to Petroecuador, the award would be for 10 years and they, from their philosophy of social responsibility, have plans to help the community in the field of environmental remediation, educational, technological and energy projects.