ITT Output Falls 20% As Petroecuador Maintains Five-Year Closure Path
Production data
Bloque 43-ITT averaged 42,105 barrels per day between January and June 2026, according to Petroecuador data cited by Primicias.
That represents a 20% decline from the same months in 2023 and a 4.5% decline from January-June 2025.
Despite the decline, ITT remains Ecuador's fourth-largest oil field by production, behind Sacha, Auca, and Shushufindi. The block represents 9% of national production.
Closure mandate
The field is located in Parque Nacional Yasuni and has been in production for 10 years. It began production in 2016.
The closure process follows Ecuador's 2023 popular consultation on ITT. On August 31, 2023, the National Electoral Council formalized results showing 59% support for stopping oil exploitation in ITT and moving ahead with a progressive closure.
The Constitutional Court later set a deadline of February 2025 for an ordered closure of existing wells.
Petroecuador timeline
The Noboa government officially began the closure process on August 28, 2024, starting with the Ishpingo B-56 producing well.
Petroecuador's 2025 management report said 59 wells had been definitively closed by December 2025, about 24% of the planned total.
Petroecuador's plan covers a closure process of five years and five months, designed to reduce production progressively and avoid environmental and social impacts.
Legal dispute
Yasunidos, the collective that pushed the suspension of extraction in Yasuni, argues the state has not complied with the consultation mandate.
Legal coordinator Pedro Bermeo argues extraction should have stopped one year after official proclamation of the results, by August 31, 2024, and that the state also missed the Constitutional Court's February 2025 deadline.
Yasunidos filed a compliance action on November 12, 2025 against the Noboa government before the Constitutional Court. Bermeo said the case remains with constitutional judge Claudia Salgado Levy and has not yet received an admission order.
What to watch
- Whether the Constitutional Court admits or rejects the Yasunidos compliance action
- Whether Petroecuador accelerates well closures beyond the five-year plan
- Whether ITT's decline materially affects Ecuador's national production base
- Whether fiscal pressure revives debate around the pace of the Yasuni closure
Source: Primicias.
Source
Primicias — “Plan de cierre del Bloque 43-ITT: la produccion petrolera cae 20% a tres anos del cese definitivo que planteo Petroecuador”
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