China invests $1.2 billion in Ecuador's Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil field

A MOU was signed between Sinopec and Ecuador's Petroecuador in 2007 regarding the drilling of a portion of Yasuni national park. From 13-29 March 2009, China and Ecuador committed to negotiations for a commercial loan of $1.2 billion from the CDB over CNPC's development of the Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini oil fields (ITT) and Block 31. The $1.2 billion commercial loan has a maturity of 3-5 years and an unknown interest rate. Similar deals have around a 7% interest rate. The CDB will provide the loan to the Ministry of Finance who then will pass it on to their designated Ecuadorian firm in this case PetroAmazonas who was granted a permit to work a portion of ITT in 2014. PetroChina is a listed company controlled by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), owned by the Chinese state, and Andes Petroleum is a joint venture between CNPC and another state-run Chinese firm CNPC's role is unclear because there is no mention of Block 31 or ITT on their global operations website which outlines where they are active. Significant environmental controversy means poor transparency on project details. Drilling began in Tiputini around May 2015 and production began around April 2016. The drill is operational. In October 2014, three platforms and 90 wells were planned to be built. Around 200 are needed in order to extract 920m barrels of crude thought to be located in the block. At Ishpingo, PetroAmazonas plans to install 5 platforms and drilling of 10 wells starting 2017.

Number of official sources

2

Number of total sources

10