Ecuador starts dismantling Yasuni National Park oil block two days before court deadline

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Ecuador's government says it has started dismantling infrastructure on a controversial oil drilling block in Yasuni National Park, just as Friday's court-imposed deadline for completion looms.

The Ministry for Energy and Mines said in a statement Wednesday evening that it shut one of 247 wells in the 43-ITT block — the Ishpingo B-56 well.

It’s been a year since the historic referendum to halt oil drilling in the national park in the country’s Amazon, but the Waorani Indigenous people who live there and rights groups say nothing has been done.

The government last week asked the constitutional court for an extension of five years and five months for the state-run oil company Petroecuador to cease operations and get out.

“I have come to verify that the decision of last year’s referendum, where the citizens voted in favor of the closure of this field, is being complied with," said head of the ministry, Antonio Goncalves, in the statement. “To comply with the closure of the ITT is not an easy job, it requires special and technical planning.”

The wells should all go offline by December 2029, the government has previously said.

The announcement of the B-56 well closure came hours after an Associated Press story about the frustrations of the Waorani people and others who complained the government has taken no action over the past year.

The AP has received no response to requests for comment from the ministry and Petroecuador over the past three days.

The Ecuadorian government does not get to set its own timeline and has shown little political will to close operations, said Kevin Koenig, climate and energy director for the nonprofit Amazon Watch, in response to the government statement.

“The government is bound by its obligations to the constitutional court, which gave it a year to close 227 wells. ... The fact that they closed one yesterday does not mean that they are complying with the court order," Koenig said in a call from Yasuni National Park.

“They're not meeting their judicial obligation to the court, they're not fulfilling the mandate of the Ecuadorian people and they're not respecting the rights of the Waorani,” he said.

Yasuni National Park is one of most biodiverse regions on the planet. Besides the Waorani, it’s home to two of the world’s last Indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation, the Taromenane and the Tagaeri people, according to the nonprofit Amazon Frontlines.

Ending oil drilling at the 43-ITT oil block could cost $1.3 billion, according to government estimates.

Oil accounts for nearly one-third of Ecuador’s GDP, and its economy is struggling to meet its domestic debt obligations.

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