Noboa suggests extending the closure period of a key deposit to finance internal conflict

The president of EcuadorDaniel Noboa, suggested this Monday the possibility of extending for one more year the deadline to cease exploitation of the Block 43-ITT oil field, one of the most productive in the country, located in the Amazonian Yasuní National Park, as was widely voted majority in 2023 in a national plebiscite.

Noboa launched this possibility as an initiative to not stop receiving the benefits generated by this deposit in the context of the “internal armed conflict” that his Government declared at the beginning of the month against organized crime and that, according to its estimates, requires more than US$ 1,000 million to confront criminal gangs.

He Block 43-ITT (Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini) produces approximately 58,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which represents around 11% of national oil production, and in 2022 it generated US$ 1.2 billion for the State, according to figures from the state company Petroecuador. that operates the deposit.

“I think the moratorium is a viable path. We are at war, we are not in the same situation as two years ago, and we managed to stop what was an avalanche of violence and destruction“Noboa said in statements to the Teleamazonas television channel.

“It is a key time”

The president pointed out that it is essential that the fight against organized crime “It is also accompanied by an increase in income or with some form of moratorium in which we can maintain certain income until this time passes..

“It is a key time that, if we do not fight for it and do not finance it, we will lose the country”Noboa remarked.

Although he said that the moratorium should still be discussed with the experts, he considered that “at least it should be for an additional year.”

Ecuadorians voted in favor of leaving oil reserves in the subsoil indefinitely worth approximately US$ 13.8 billion for the next 20 years, according to estimates by the state company Petroecuador, which began exploiting this field in 2016.

This vote set a world precedent as Ecuador was the first country to democratically vote to close an oil exploitation to preserve the Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.

Since the official proclamation of the results of the plebiscite carried out on August 31, the Government has, in principle, a period of one year to proceed with the cessation of operations and the dismantling of the facilities of Block 43-ITT (Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini).

Noboa supported closing the campaign

During the electoral campaign, Noboa was in favor of ceasing the exploitation of Block 43-ITT and dismantling its facilities under the argument that over the years its profitability was going to be increasingly lower, as international oil prices crude oil are going down.

At the beginning of January, the Government of Ecuador elevated the fight against organized crime to the category of “internal armed conflict” after a wave of attacks and violent actions attributed to these gangs, which it has described as terrorist groups and non-belligerent actors. state that must be neutralized by the Armed Forces.

In this series of actions there were kidnappings of police officers, murders, explosive devices, burning vehicles, riots in prisons with 200 hostages who managed to be freed, and the takeover of a television channel by an armed group.

The events occurred at a time when the Noboa Government, which took office last November, was preparing to take the first steps to regain control of the prisons, many of them dominated by these organized crime groups, causing in a large part of the series of prison massacres where more than 450 prisoners have been murdered since 2020.