US Kicking over Ecuador Oil Tiff

Quito
May 24
The presentation of an international arbitration demand by the US oil company Oxy against the Ecuadorian government worsens the conflict between that firm and country.

"The demand is totally strange to Oxy's commitments," states a Foreign Affairs Ministry's news bulletin, after a meeting attended by State attorney Jose Borja, several ministers and legal advisors.

The contract between that transnational company and Ecuador establishes that "the parties could go to arbitration" for lawsuits beyond the closing date "under the Ecuadorian legislation, which is the only one applicable for this case," according a note published Tuesday.

The document states that if the company did not fit in with the contract's expiring resolution declared last week, it should have gone to the Administrative Legal Court in Quito.

For Petroecuador president Fernando Gonzalez, there is no possibility of international arbitration by declaring the end of the agreement with Oxy Company, because the Hydrocarbon Law establishes there is no appeal in this case.

"Nobody can oblige us to arbitrate and international rules could not vary this," stated Gonzalez.