In 1964, the Texaco Petroleum Company started exploring for oil in Northeast Ecuador, with the permission of the Ecuadorean government and in partnership with both Gulf Oil and state-owned Petroecuador (then called Empresa Estatal Petróleos del Ecuador). In 1967 the consortium hit a gusher, which it began to exploit in 1972. Gulf sold its interest to Petroecuador, and Texaco Petroleum transfered management of the site to the state corporation in 1990. Texaco Petroleum’s concession expired in 1993, leaving the state as the sole owner of the site, known as Lago Agrio. Lago Agrio has produced well over 1.7 billion barrels of oil, withperhaps $50 billion in profits accruing to the Ecuadorean government. Neither Texaco nor any of its subsidiaries have been involved in oil exploration or production in Ecuador since the 1990′s.
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