The Ministry of Energy of Ecuador plans to award oil blocks and the operation of its largest refinery - Esmeraldas - to private companies through at least four auctions to be held in 2022. A first round "Intracampos II" will offer six blocks (18 to 22 kb/d) for a total investment of US$2bn in 2022. Three other rounds are expected, Intracampos III and Suroriente. An auction should be held for the offshore Amistad field in the Gulf of Guayaquil and for the Sacha field, one of the largest fields in the country, which should attract nearly US$2.9bn in investment. Another auction should include high potential blocks in the Amazon region, which will arouse opposition from local communities. The blocks to be offered in the auctions are currently controlled by the state-owned oil company Petroecuador, but the government aims to boost crude oil production to 1 mbd by 2025 (from 0.5 mb/d in 2019) and bets on private investment; the auctions are expected to generate US$19bn in investments, including US$2.7bn for the 110,000 bbl/d Esmeraldas refinery. The governemnt will also evaluate the interest of investors for building a new Euro-5 refinery.