International Center For The Settlement Of Investment Disputes News

Perenco Ecuador Limited has called on the Government of Ecuador to cease efforts to sell oil seized from Blocks 7 and 21 in defiance of orders by international arbitration tribunals, and instead to seek a negotiated solution to the dispute concerning the applicability of Law 42. Perenco Ecuador is the Operator of the two blocks in question. On February 19, 2009, the Republic of Ecuador and its oil company, Empresa Estatal Petroleos del Ecuador ("Petroecuador"), commenced a coercive process to collect from Perenco approximately $327 million they claimed were due under a 2006 Ecuadorian law ("Law 42") by which the government asserts a right to 99% of the oil revenues above an arbitrary "reference price."  In March 2009…