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“We are going to collaborate in any way we can officials in Buenos Aires have arranged for the
to reach a resolution,” he was quoted as saying by installation of a second LNG regasification facil-
S&P Global Platts. ity off the coast so that the country can import
In the meantime, Martinez said, the Fernan- more LNG this winter.
dez administration is taking other measures The new terminal is due to begin operating
to boost gas supplies. For example, he stated, on May 25, he noted. ™

ECUADOR
Natixis unveils plan to stop financing

Ecuadorean oil trade

FRANCE’S Natixis is set to join the ranks of
financial institutions that have stopped support-
ing trade deals involving Ecuadorean crude oil.
The French bank informed Reuters last week
that it intended to stop financing trade in Ecua-
dorean oil by April 2022. It stressed that it had
been ramping down its involvement in such
transactions since mid-2020 and intended to
cut the volume of Ecuadorean crude for which
it provided financing even further this year and
in early 2022.
Natixis did not say exactly why it had taken
this step. Presumably it was swayed by its inclu-
sion in a report published in March 2020 by
two advocacy groups, Stand.earth and Amazon
Watch, on financing arrangements for Ecua-
dorean heavy crude shipments to US refineries
over a 10-year period. In the report, the two
groups noted that the shipments consisted of
around $10bn worth of oil from fields near the Ecuadorean indigenous groups have protested oil projects (Image: Amazon Watch)
upper reaches of the Amazon river. They also
argued that continued development of these agencies that it had already stopped financing
sites posed threats to ecosystems and indigenous Ecuadorean oil exports before August 2020.
communities and urged financial institutions For its part, UBS said in a statement that it had
not to support such operations. “declined transactions where the origin of oil is
Additionally, they singled out six European verifiably associated with breaches of our stand-
banks for their involvement in such deals – BNP ards, such as indigenous peoples’ land rights or
Paribas (France), Credit Suisse (Switzerland), UNESCO World Heritage Sites.”
ING (Netherlands), Natixis, Rabobank (Neth- Natixis, meanwhile, responded to criticism
erlands) and UBS (Switzerland). BNP Paribas, by saying in January 2021 that it intended to
Credit Suisse and ING responded by declaring look into the issues outlined in the report. It also
in January 2021 that they intended to exit or pointed out that it had not provided credits to
scale back their operations within Ecuador’s oil any new clients for Ecuadorean oil shipments
sector. since mid-2020 and was working with a smaller
Meanwhile, Rabobank reminded news number of customers involved in such deals. ™

Week 16 22•April•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13