American company Amazon Tech sent a letter to Petroecuador’s new manager, Ramón Correa Vivanco, ask him to proceed with the award of the contract to capture lighter gas in the Amazon. One of the arguments for that is that it is the current general manager Ramón Correa, while he was director of research and production, gave his support for the contract to be delivered to the said companyas part of the Evaluation Committee.

In addition, the private company is asking him to comply with the penalty Criminal guarantee court specialized in the trial of criminal offenses related to corruption and organized crime which would partially accept the protective action they filed and orders EP Petroecuador to make a decision on the bidding process within 10 days from April 11. So Petroecuador has until April 25 to do so.

The letter and the requests it contains were issued from the office Durini & Guerrero, was issued with a copy to President Guillermo Lasso and the US Ambassador, Michael J. Fiztpatrick, It was sent at a time when the legal situation of current manager Correa is not known for sure since there are several doubts about the legality of his appointment.

In any case, this 14.4. Pedro Pinzón Ceballos, joint attorney for the Amazon Tech Consortium, sent the aforementioned letter to Correa Vivanco, recalling the entire process that was carried out in connection with the lighter gas collection competition.

The said tender, which started a year ago, in March 2022, was looking for a private company to offer technology that would help in the exploitation of this gas, which is now burned in flares, and which causes environmental and health damage to the inhabitants of the settlement. zone. All this in the midst of a ruling by the court in Sucumbíos, which ordered Petroecuador to turn off the lighters closest to populated areas by March 29.

On December 30, the Evaluation Commission, composed of various executives from EP Petroecuador, informs EP Petroecuador’s management in a final report that “Amazon Tech meets all requirements” and has an “estimated investment of $746.8 million.” In this sense, it recommends to the general director of EP Petroecuador “to award the contract to this company except in accordance with the best criteria, in accordance with the applicable legal regulations”,

The Commission members who recommended that the contract be awarded to Amazon Tech were:

Amazon Tech, a month after the positive evaluation report was published, insisted on a request for the state-owned company to explain itself, but did not receive a response.

On March 21, 2023, Amazon Tech requested an action to protect justice with respect to violations of environmental, health and legal rights. And asking for the bidding process to be completed.

He On April 11, the criminal bail court orally sentenced, in which he gives Petroecuador ten working days to make a decision. That is until April 25.

For Amazon Tech, Petroecuador’s only viable response should be to award the contract, as the final evaluation report shows. He also emphasized that the Commission was made up of the previous administrator. In that sense, the company said yes “There is no reason not to proceed with the awarding of the bidding process in favor of the consortium.”

Meanwhile, EP Petroecuador has not yet defined the destination of this tender. Energy Minister Fernando Santos, together with former manager María Elisa Soledispa, reported more than a month ago that the tender would be annulled, because there would be errors in the bidding, committed by the state-owned company itself.

Yesterday Petroecuador told this newspaper that the company had made an analysis two processes related to the reactivation of closed wells and the capture and/or industrialization of the associated gas and found that:

What’s going on with manager Cora?

In the meantime, the legal situation of Petroecuador’s manager, Ramón Correa Vivanco, is uncertain. The official, who was Petroecuador’s exploration and production manager, was appointed Petroecuador’s manager by the company’s board of directors on April 11. However, according to the Workers’ Council, he did not meet all the legal requirements at the time. Jinsop Martínez, Secretary General of the Committee, filed a lawsuit for protection, considering his appointment null and void.

The Workers’ Council got it certificate from the Ministry of Labor on the disability of holding public office, because he had debts in SRI. Therefore, the judicial department in Pedernales deals with this issue. However, on April 14, Ramón Correa already presented a new certificate, also issued by the Ministry of Labor, showing that there are no obstacles. Ramón Correa has been working in the state-owned company since Friday.