ABSTRACT
The discovery of petroleum in the jungled regions of Ecuador's northern oriente in 1967 heralded the beginning of yet another export boom. Like cacao and bananas before it, petroleum brought an unprecedented surge of wealth to the country. Petroleum exploration throughout the world by US and European firms increased markedly in the 1920s following fears of an imminent and severe world shortage. Ecuadorian production of crude petroleum began when foreign firms with profitable operations on the northern Peruvian coast looked northward toward southern Ecuador for possible extensions of the fields. The potentially large size of Ecuador's petroleum reserves convinced Texaco-Gulf of the feasibility of an Ecuadorian pipeline connecting Lago Agrio with the coastal port of Esmeralda s, a project the government had been forcefully advocating since the initial discovery. Petroleum revenues launched an unprecedented period of economic expansion. Colonization of the newly accessible region progressed at a rapid rate, following the initial discovery of petroleum.
