Ecuador is the smallest producing member of OPEC and has been dominated by the oil industry since the beginning of exploitation in the 1970’s. Crude oil makes up well over half of the county’s export revenues, with the majority of oil being exported to the United States and other nearby South American countries. Despite its abundance of crude oil, Ecuador severely lacks refining capabilities and must import much of refined oil from other countries. A large portion of this imported oil is utilized for energy production, accounting for 79% of all energy production in the country. The only other energy source that comes close to being relevant at the national level is hydroelectricity, which represents 17% of Ecuador’s total energy production. Over the years, the Ecuadorian oil industry has become more nationalized and consolidated under the state oil companies Petroecuador and Petroamazonas. However, much of the infrastructure these companies oversee, such as pipelines and wells, are aging and in desperate need of updating. Given Ecuador’s severe reliance on oil as a form of energy production, increasing investment in various forms of renewables would greatly benefit the country. In addition to achieving relative energy independence, Ecuador would better realize its export profits if it no longer needed to sink so much funding back into importing refined oil. Overall, investment in renewables would open up new industries and opportunities for employment in the country and allow it to progress towards oil-independence.
ECUADOR'S OIL CONFLICTS:
The cost and benefits of Ecuador’s dependence on oil exportation has long been debated among the various presidential administrations and their constituents since the establishment of Ecuador’s first pipeline in 1972. Oil exportation brought in immediate wealth for a country that was drowning in debt and needed a way to quickly fund repayment and social programs. However, reliance on this single commodity was viewed as a recipe for a future economic collapse when its price inevitably fell, or reserves dried up. Immediate benefit eventually overruled any sense of caution and exploitation of Ecuador’s oil reserves became one of the most prominent employment fields in the country. Not every community was in favor of this decision and their disfavor culminated in three main “Oil Conflicts”. These oil conflicts were based around small communities rallying together with larger international organizations to oppose attempts to increase oil extraction in their communities. This was mainly accomplished through legal means, although physical resistance from smaller groups was a common occurrence. While the successes of these conflict may be dubious at best, they did establish that these communities did not approve of the exploitation of their land without their consent and that they were prepared to fight for their rights if they needed too. While I understand that there is only so much small communities and outsider organizations can do, I was disappointed to see that none of these conflicts resulted in the abandonment of oil exploitation in their communities. It very much seemed like their attempts to resist were brushed aside by the government and that they themselves abandoned their causes after being given vague platitudes about respecting their rights to the land.
HEALTH EFFECTS OF OIL CONTAMINATION IN THE ORIENTE REGION OF ECUADOR:
The Northeastern regions of Ecuador were opened to wide-scale colonization in the early 1970’s after increases in oil exploitation within the area. This colonization and exploitation resulted in the rapid decline of the local environments through deforestation and industrial accidents that often-caused large oil spills. Many of the communities in the region, both colonizer and indigenous, rely on local rivers for water and domestic uses. The frequent and environmentally disastrous oil spills that occur at the many oil wells and pipelines have caused oil and various chemicals to leech into these waterways. As there has been no clean up, these local communities have begun to experience a wide range of negative health effects. Studies have found significant increases with cancer rates and a much higher frequencies of birth defects/spontaneous abortion within the region’s population. The rate for these issues increases significantly the closer the community is to any of the abandoned chemical waste pits or oil wells. I am appalled by the fact that it has been shown that these communities are experiencing suffering the consequences of someone else’s actions while the perpetrator has received no punishment. I am surprised that cases like this are not cited more often as pipeline expansions and resulting oil spills are a common occurrence even in the United States. Cases like the Oriente should drive home the point that continued oil exploitation is not only bad for the environment, but absolutely destroys the health of the workers and local communities as well.
CHEVRON OIL DISASTER:
During the 1960s, the Chevron-owned Texaco oil company signed a partnership with Ecuador to drill for oil the country’s portion of the Amazon Rainforest. With billions of barrels of oil being produced, several times more waste chemicals were also left to stagnate in temporary retention pools at the drill sites. Normally, extremely resistant tarps are placed as barriers in these pools to act as a barrier to prevent leeching and pollution. When the well was used up, the left-over waste was removed from the temporary retention pools and injected back underground. Chevron was aware of this policy and had even patented improved, methods of doing so in the United States. However, the company ignored environmental laws and protections in Ecuador, allowing these pools to be poorly maintained or completely abandoned. The barrier tarps were never placed, pipelines were built to drain the pits directly into rivers, and toxic gases were burned off and released on site. In response to concerns raised by the local indigenous people, the company claimed the pollutants were acceptable for human consumption. Studies have shown that these chemicals actually significantly raise the cancer and birth defect rates in populations exposed to them. Even if the sites were to be remediated immediately, the current damage would persist for decades. Additionally, evidence of wrong doing was purposefully hidden by employees at the sites under official company policy and has put significant amounts of funding in greenwashing its public image. What I do not understand about situations like this is that these companies could easily have avoided lawsuits like this by simply following proper procedures. Instead, they would rather chase a few extra million dollars in already monstrously sized profits now while simultaneously creating a situation that could cost them billions later on. Hopefully Chevron is forced to make up for its blatant disregard for human/environmental health and safety and is fined appropriately for its misdeeds.
LEGAL CASE BROUGHT AGAINST CHEVRON FOR OIL CONTAMINATION:
Texaco began operating within Ecuador in the 1960s in partnership with the state-run Petro Ecuador oil company. At each of the over one hundred oil wells, several dumping pits were created to hold the leftover chemical waste that was generated during drilling and processing. As Texaco shifted operations within the country, these dumping pits were abandoned and allowed to leak into the surrounding land and waterways. This environmental disaster was allowed to occur unremedied over the course of 30 years. In response to this wide-scale problem, 30,000 people in Ecuador have brought a lawsuit against Texaco’s parent company Chevron. The majority of those impacted by this contamination are from the various indigenous peoples that live within the rural areas of Ecuador where drilling was commonplace. It is horrible to see the disregard that large corporations have towards the lives and health of the people that have traditionally lived in the areas they temporarily operate in. It is not Chevron that will have to deal with the consequences of oil contamination in the decades to come, instead the already marginalized indigenous tribes of the region will. Given that many corporations like Chevron are essentially above the law and that Ecuador is relatively small and unimportant on the world stage, it is unlikely that Chevron will ever face any real legal consequences for its actions.
CHEVRON FINED NEARLY $20 BILLION FOR OIL CONTAMINATION:
In response to revelation that the oil company Chevron knowingly allowed hundreds of pits of leftover chemical waste in Ecuador to leech into the surrounding in environments, the company was fined $8.6 billion and required to pay $8.6 in punitive damages. Neither side of the lawsuit deemed the outcome acceptable, with the indigenous peoples harmed by the actions of Chevron deeming the damages worth far more than $8.6 billion and Chevron calling the decision unenforceable. This ruling was 17 years in the making and was blocked repeatedly by Chevron, who successfully had the case moved from the United States to Ecuador in 2002. However, Chevron will likely never pay the nearly $18 billion in fines as it has no assets that could be seized in Ecuador and is fighting to make itself immune to collection efforts in the rest of the world. This case is a travesty of justice and represents everything currently wrong with the legal system in countries like the United States. The fact that Chevron acknowledged that it caused this environmental disaster through is disregard for the citizens of Ecuador and still will receive no punishment because the disaster occurred in a smaller, poorer country and not the United States.