The government of Ecuador is highly dependent on the revenues from the energy sector to support its budget and finance state projects.

The company operates several oil fields, including Shushufindi, Sacha, Auca, Lago Agrio, and Libertador.

It also operates the Trans-Ecuadorian oil pipeline network, Sistema de Oleoducto Transecuatoriano (SOTE), built in 1972 for Texaco-Gulf.

The Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) in the Yasuni National Park is said to hold 909 million barrels of oil reserves, yet controversial social relations causes protests and political conflicts.

The violations are on the health basis concerning the local populations due to bad practice of Petroecuador as well as foreign industries established within Ecuador.

The controlled flight into terrain was caused by a loss of situational awareness by the pilots, owing to distractions (lack of sterile cockpit rule) and poor crew resource management.

[14] Petroecuador has been the subject of controversy over the impact of exploration and pipeline operations on the environment and Huaorani and Cofan indigenous peoples within the Amazon basin in Ecuador's Oriente (eastern) region.

[16][17][dubious – discuss] Advocacy groups such as Amazon Watch and ChevronToxico have attempted to document the oil spills, ecological damage and human impacts of these operations.

Prof. Judith Kimerling of CUNY School of Law in 1991 published a book Amazon Crude (ISBN 0960935851) which details many of these problems.

These operations affected indigenous and non-indigenous local livelihoods in the area by impairing the ecological functions and biodiversity of thousands of acres of land.