regarding the oil production of Ecuador are facing controversial issues. The indigenous communities have suffered various consequences for the growing energy sector in Ecuador as it seeks to expand. The state policies have caused domestic conflicts among local communities were the indigenous territories and practices are overlooked in expense to the state economic benefits. In 2003 and in 2010, the protest escalated due to political campaigns urging privatization ( 2003) and expansionist policies enabling foreign corporations access to the market ( 2010) The company owns and operates an Embraer ERJ 145LR aircraft (as of August 2016). Safety record On February 26, 1998 there was an explosion and fire at the Petroecuador pipeline in Esmeraldas, a port city in northwest Ecuador. Petroecuador has also contributed to certain human rights violations according to some critics. 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. Environmental record 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. In 1964 oil drilling operations began to take place in previously roadless rainforest carried out by Texaco. 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 () which details many of these problems. Petroecuador has been the sole owner and operator of the oil facilities since 1990. In 2000–2008, the company was responsible for 1,415 oil spills. Petroecuador has also failed to clean up sites that were its responsibility under the joint venture. Lago Agrio oil field operations Between the years 1964 and 1992 the Texaco Corporation and years later Petroecuador carried on intensive oil operations in the northeastern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. 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. Today the effects of these operations have been investigated and through the dumping crude in open pits, burying oil extraction byproducts, and burning unwanted oil without proper treatment, cancer rates amongst indigenous and non-indigenous residence has increased dramatically with in a ten-year time period. As oil weathers, contamination occurs as