Quito, Ecuador – Ecuador’s government announced yesterday at the XXI Encuentro Anual de Petróleo y Gas (ENAEP 2026), the country’s premier oil and gas summit, that it would issue a tender for remote Amazon oil blocks in December 2026. The announcement came despite the government’s failure to meet its own earlier 2026 timetable and in the face of a joint declaration issued by seven Indigenous nations rejecting the proposed Ronda Suroriente and Ronda Subandina and putting companies and investors on notice against pursuing oil extraction in their territories.
The proposed blocks, located in the southeastern Ecuadorian Amazon close to the border with Peru, overlap the territories of those seven Indigenous nations, who say the government’s plans face decades of Indigenous-led opposition, high development costs, uncertain returns, and significant legal, operational, and environmental risks. It remains unclear whether one or both rounds will ultimately be launched.
Energy and Environment Minister Juan Carlos Blum made the announcement, adding that the administration of President Danial Noboa hoped for an estimated $1 billion USD in investment. Acquisition of bidding rights is expected in February 2027, with bids to be received in the second quarter of the year and contracts expected to be signed in December 2027.
The December announcement is the latest chapter in a decades-long effort by successive governments to open the central and southern Ecuadorian Amazon to large-scale extraction – an effort that has repeatedly run up against the organized resistance of the Indigenous nations whose territories are at stake. The Ronda Suroriente comprises 14 blocks (70, 71, 72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, and 87) and the Ronda Subandina comprises four blocks (20, 22, 28, and 29). Together, the 18 blocks cover approximately three million hectares – much of it remote, roadless rainforest.
That history offers a telling precedent. When the government launched the XI Ronda Petrolera in 2012, offering 13 blocks across the central and southern Amazon, Indigenous organizations mobilized to protest in Quito and challenged government efforts to promote the round at industry events in Houston, Calgary, and Paris. Despite an international campaign to attract investors, only three of the 13 blocks received bids. Not a single exploratory well was ever drilled.
“Successive governments keep repackaging essentially the same oil blocks and presenting them to investors as a new opportunity,” said Kevin Koenig, Climate, Energy, and Extractive Industry Director at Amazon Watch. “Yesterday’s announcement changes nothing on the ground. Indigenous nations have opposed oil extraction in these territories for decades, previous rounds failed to deliver, and the fundamental obstacles remain. Investors should be asking why and looking very carefully at the history before placing that bet.”
The proposed rounds would open some of the Amazon’s most intact forests to new oil extraction at a moment when the Amazon biome has already reached an ecological tipping point. New drilling and infrastructure would drive deforestation and forest fragmentation, increase greenhouse gas emissions, release stored carbon, and weaken one of Earth’s most critical carbon sinks. Oil operations would also bring increased risks of spills, contamination, and health impacts for Indigenous communities – adding to the oil industry’s decades-long legacy of destruction across the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Much of the proposed expansion overlaps Indigenous territories whose peoples have repeatedly rejected extraction and asserted their rights to self-determination and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent – conditions that create significant legal, operational, financial, environmental, and reputational risks for any company that enters the proposed blocks.
Indigenous leaders say yesterday’s announcement confirms the government has not abandoned its plans but that their opposition is equally firm. The seven nations are calling on the Ecuadorian government to cancel the Ronda Suroriente and Ronda Subandina, respect Indigenous territorial decisions and the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, and support Indigenous-led alternatives and a just transition away from fossil fuels.
