Region: Ecuador

A US court has enforced a US$412 million ICSID award against Ecuador that was the subject of a recent settlement agreement – while refusing to offset it against a disputed tax bill. 

17 March 2023

Ecuador has agreed to pay Bahamian oil company Perenco its US$412 million ICSID award to settle a long-running dispute over a tax on windfall revenues, while in a separate arbitration the state has been ordered to pay US$17 million to a Spanish-led consortium.

03 January 2023

UPDATED: A Canadian energy company says it will bring an UNCITRAL claim against Ecuador over the state’s alleged refusal to renew concessions for a pair of oil blocks.

06 December 2022

A Chinese mining company that says it lost control over a gold and silver project in Ecuador after it was invaded by activists has made good on its threat to file an investment treaty claim.

06 October 2022

Bahamian oil company Perenco says it has registered its US$412 million ICSID award against Ecuador in the courts of Singapore and the UK, as the Latin American state challenges an unrelated award in favour of a Singaporean oil company.

26 August 2022

Chinese state-owned energy company Sinopec has won a US$64 million award against Ecuador’s national oil company over three Amazonian projects, a case that saw Quinn Emanuel partner David Orta disqualified as arbitrator because of his ties to the claimant’s counsel.

10 August 2022

Bahamian oil company Perenco has frozen Luxembourg bank accounts used by Ecuador to make coupon payments associated with sovereign bonds, with the ICSID award holder claiming this raises the possibility of the state defaulting to creditors.

01 August 2022

Spanish and French consortiums have won damages – though far less than they sought – in two ICC disputes worth a combined US$75 million with an Ecuadorean municipality over the troubled construction of a tram line through a UNESCO-listed city centre.

07 July 2022

A Dutch appeal court has dismissed Ecuador’s renewed bid to overturn a treaty award holding it liable for a denial of justice in its US$9.5 billion dispute with US oil company Chevron over pollution in the Amazon.

30 June 2022

An UNCITRAL tribunal has ordered Ecuador to pay US$11 million to a Singaporean company in an oil field dispute, including moral damages for its “malicious” behaviour in a related criminal proceeding.

08 June 2022