Ecuador’s beaten-down petroleum industry has been struggling to recover from a savage 2020 where pipeline failures, the COVID-19 pandemic, corruption scandals , and heightened political uncertainty sharply impacted operations. There were fears that the presidential elections would see poll favorite socialist economist Andres Arauz, the protégé of former President Rafael Correa, emerge victorious from the runoff held on Sunday. Polls, only last week, indicated that Arauz was the leading candidate going into the presidential runoff against conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso. Correa’s protégé made it clear he was opposed to outgoing President Lenin Moreno’s oil industry reforms and would block the privatization of the Esmeraldas refinery, Ecuador’s largest. Before the presidential runoff, Arauz had even filed a lawsuit claiming that the privatization of operations at the facility was unconstitutional. During his campaign, Arauz stated that if he emerged victorious, he would revoke the contract putting private operators in place at […]