For A hearing was scheduled for May 24 and 25 for the trial of the lawsuit filed by Petroecuador against CNO SA (formerly Constructora Norberto Odebrecht SA) before the contested administrative court based in Guayaquil.

The lawsuit was filed in October 2020 to declare that the former contractor did not fulfill his obligations arising from TGER contract no. 2013299 for the “Construction of the Pascuales Cuenca polyduct and its stations”, signed with EP Petroecuador on October 17. in 2013; and consequently the payment of damages and losses caused to the company is ordered.

The amount of the process is set at $281,378,955.86, an amount which, if the claim is accepted, must be settled at the time of execution of the judgment. As part of this court process 09802-2020-00692, preparatory hearings have already been held in which previous exceptions have been resolved, initial arguments have been presented and the evidence that will be presented at the trial has been announced. These hearings were held on December 7, 2021 and July 21, 2022.

Now, at the hearings in May, the parties will present their evidence, present their closing arguments, and the Court will be able to impose a sentence.

The company Petroecuador also stated that it did not receive any value from the company CON SA (formerly Constructora Norberto Odebrecht SA) in the framework of the initiated legal proceedings.

When the state-owned company was consulted about Odebrecht’s arguments that it had no obligation to carry out soil studies, Petroecuador clarified that Caminosca carried out the studies and Odebrecht did the work on that study, “however, when they did the compaction, plotting and foundation work it should have been noticed inconsistencies and deviations in the said study”, he said.

Odebrecht mentioned that Petroecuador ignored his warnings and instead asked for work to continue. This would happen during the government of Rafael Correa, during the administration of the then manager Marco Calvopiña, who was at the head of the state company Petroecuador from January 2011 to July 20, 2015.

according to a audit conducted by the controller and approved in January 2020. it was determined that the construction company Norberto Odebrecht did not establish, through complementary analyzes with the studies and projects submitted by Petroecuador, cSoil condition and load capacity of platforms. He did not even create a final project that would solve the shifting of the slopes.

He also said that it is about correcting the shortcomings Petroecuador has invested $70,767,470 in studies, investigations and mitigation work, but they have not provided definitive solutions to the deficiencies. It also ensures that heThe polyduct construction inspector breached his obligations by not demanding Odebrecht which uses advanced techniques and efficient methods in the construction and reconstruction of slopes, in order to solve instability in slopes and soil.

Currently, Petroecuador is carrying out the process of transferring gas balls from Cuenza to Chorrillos, since they cannot continue in the place where they were originally placed, due to subsidence.