Yasuní ITT oil wells closure (Ecuador)
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
- Press and investigations Figures recorded for August 2025: 10 of 246 wells closed.
- Press and investigations El Mercurio (Cuenca), 2025: Headline: closure of the wells at Yasuní is pending. El Mercurio (Cuenca)
- Press and investigations El Mercurio, 2026: Headline: 59 of 247 wells closed. El Mercurio (Cuenca)
In 2023 Ecuadorian voters chose to leave the oil of the Yasuní ITT block underground. By August 2025 the sources record 10 of 246 wells closed, and the block was still producing in 2026.
As of August 2025. A 2026 El Mercurio headline reported 59 of 247; the two counts are not reconciled in the sources reviewed.
Status As of 2026: the block remained in production; the sources give differing counts of closed wells (10 of 246 in August 2025; 59 of 247 in a 2026 headline).
- Ecuador's state budget — Revenue loss from closing the block, listed at about USD 1.2 billion a year
What happened
The Yasuní-ITT initiative, which ran from 2007 to 2013, asked for USD 3.6 billion in return for leaving the oil of the Yasuní ITT block underground. It raised about USD 13.5 million and ended in 2013.
In the 2023 referendum 58.95% of voters chose to leave the oil in the ground. In 2024 the block was producing 50,000 barrels a day.
By August 2025, 10 of 246 wells had been closed. A 2025 El Mercurio report headline described the closure of the wells as pending. The figure listed as the cost of implementing the referendum result is USD 1.345 billion, and the annual revenue loss from the closure is listed at about USD 1.2 billion.
In 2026 a further El Mercurio headline reported that 59 of 247 wells had been closed. Another record of the same year states that the block was still in production in 2026. The sources reviewed do not explain the difference between the counts of 10 and 59 closed wells, or between 246 and 247 wells in total.
- 2007Yasuní-ITT initiative begins; target of USD 3.6 billion to keep the oil underground
- 2013Initiative ends having raised about USD 13.5 million
- 2023Referendum: 58.95% vote for the oil to stay in the ground
- 2024The block produces 50,000 barrels a day
- 2025By August, 10 of 246 wells closed; El Mercurio reports the closure as pending
- 2026Block still in production; El Mercurio headline reports 59 of 247 wells closed
What was said
Where accounts differ
Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.
10 of 246 wells closed.
Headline: closure of the wells at Yasuní is pending.
El Mercurio (Cuenca)How it looked
Shown
- Public position that oil at Yasuní would be closed within a year of the referendumEcuador
Recorded
- 58.95% of voters chose to leave the oil in the ground (2023).
- 10 of 246 wells closed by August 2025.
- The block produced 50,000 barrels a day in 2024.
- The block was still in production in 2026.
- El Mercurio headline, 2026: 59 of 247 wells closed.
Who gained
Reached nature or the ground
Gained elsewhere
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
Insurers
What nature saw
Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
- Disputed How many wells have been closed?
Record
- Disputed The sources reviewed give two different counts of closed wells (10 of 246 in August 2025; 59 of 247 in a 2026 headline) and do not reconcile them.
- None on record What the figure of USD 1.345 billion listed as the cost of implementing the referendum covers is not defined in the sources reviewed.
- None on record The outcome of a lawsuit over the non-implementation of the referendum, mentioned in the record, is not stated.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that the vote share was about 59% in some sources and 54% to 59% in others; that the closure was to begin in August 2024 and all 246 wells be closed by December 2029; that production fell to about 46,500 barrels a day in the first seven months of 2025, about 20% lower than a year earlier; that a Constitutional Court deadline of one year expired in August 2024; that an official of Petroecuador said some wells were faulty and not repaired; that the industry chamber asked for the decision to be reversed; and that lost revenue to 2029 was put at USD 2.46 billion by Ecuadorian press.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that on 3 October 2013 the National Assembly declared oil extraction in blocks 31 and 43 of Yasuní National Park to be in the national interest, limited to one thousandth of the park area.
Did the harm stop?
Partly. The sources reviewed record 10 of 246 wells closed by August 2025 and the block still in production in 2026.
Who paid?
The state budget, through lost revenue listed at about USD 1.2 billion a year.
Sources
Press and investigations
- Cierre de pozos en el Yasuní está pendienteEl Mercurio (Cuenca) · 2025
- El Mercurio report on wells closed at Yasuní, 59 of 247 (headline as listed)El Mercurio (Cuenca) · 2026
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