Introduction

On June 17, 2004, the Empresa Estatal Petróleos del Ecuador (PETROECUADOR), a corporation fully owned by the Government of Ecuador, filed with the ICSID Secretariat a request to annul the February 20, 2004 arbitral award (ARB/01/10) rendered in an arbitral proceeding where PETROECUADOR and REPSOL, YPF Ecuador S. A. (REPSOL) had been parties to. The original controversy between the parties arose when the Government of Ecuador asked REPSOL to start negotiations to change the service contract under which it operated for a share-production agreement. In the process of ...