Petroecuador faces the financial blockade of four European banks.

The non-profit organizations Stand.earth and Amazon Watch have been promoting a ‘lobby’ since August 2020 for financial entities that support Ecuador in the oil trade to reconsider their position.

In the photo of April 24, 2020, the El Salado river, the place where the river undermined and destroyed the SOTE and OCP pipes in the El Reventador sector, 1.5 km from what was the San waterfall Rafael, Napo province.

That month, nonprofits submitted a report to banks. Then, they held virtual meetings to deepen the observations, said Amazon Watch, which is based in San Francisco, in the United States.

In Ecuador it has a representation. Its objective is to protect the Amazon rainforest and the rights of indigenous peoples.

Stand.earth is based in the United States and Canada. They are specialized in the subject of research on business participation and how it generates impacts on citizens, the protection of forests and the rights of indigenous people.

In the August 2020 report, prepared by these two organizations and supported by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon ( Confenaie ), it is detailed that 19 banks and private financial institutions assumed in 2019 the commitment to care for the environment and respect the rights of indigenous peoples or nationalities.

Despite this, the text says, financial institutions have provided commercial financing for some 155 million barrels of oil from Ecuador to refineries in the United States for about USD 10 billion. More than 40% of those exports go to refineries only in California, in the United States.

This crude, according to the aforementioned report, contained approximately 66 million metric tons of CO2, equivalent to the annual emissions of 17 coal-fired power plants.

The document also includes the environmental impact and the communities, which produced in April 2020 the oil spill due to the rupture of the pipelines, in San Rafael, in Napo.

Sofía Jarrín, Advisor for Incidence at Amazon Watch, said that, among the 19 entities evaluated, there are six European banks, considered key, because they finance 85% of all Ecuadorian crude trade .

The financing was given, despite the fact that they promote policies to promote human rights and curb climate change, said Jarrín.

Tras analizar el informe, cuatro de los seis bancos europeos, han tomado ya la decisión de no financiar el comercio de crudo ecuatoriano. A inicios del 2021, hicieron pública su postura BNP Paribas Group, Credit Suisse e ING Belgium. Y, Natixis de Francia lo hizo la semana anterior.

Están pendientes UBS de Suiza y Rabobank de Holanda. Esas entidades han apoyado con recursos a las firmas que comprar crudo a Ecuador.

La empresa estatal Petroecuador informó que la exploración y explotación de crudo se hace aplicando los más altos estándares de calidad para minimizar los impactos ambientales, que mantienen proyectos sostenibles como Amazonía Viva y que promueve el trabajo con las comunidades cercanas.

La firma destacó que cuenta con un programa de relaciones comunitarias que atiende a 890 comunidades.

Para Xavier Orellana, analista económico, las entidades financieras han tomado esta decisión porque deben realizar auditorías medioambientales o sobre el efecto en la sociedad y, al conocer esta realidad, prefieren tomar distancia.

Walter Spurrier, director de Análisis Semanal, expresó que el Estado debe elaborar una campaña que evidencie su preocupación por el cuidado de la Amazonía. En ese plan se debe fijar, por ejemplo, plazos para limpiar los daños petroleros.