LatAmOil: Natixis to phase out Ecuadorean oil finance

France’s Natixis is set to join the ranks of financial institutions that have stopped supporting trade deals involving Ecuadorean crude oil.

The French bank informed Reuters last week that it intended to stop financing trade in Ecuadorean 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 inclusion in a report drawn up by two advocacy groups, Stand.earth and Amazon Watch, on financing arrangements for Ecuadorean heavy crude shipments to US refineries. The report faulted six European banks for the involvement in such deals, which they said posed threats to ecosystems and indigenous communities in the upper reaches of the Amazon river.

Three of the six banks – BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and ING – preceded Natixis in pledging to scale back its involvement in Ecuador’s oil sector.