Ecuador is in the final stages of an agreement with Occidental Petroleum Corp to pay the roughly $1 billion required by a World Bank tribunal for seizing the company's assets, President Rafael Correa was quoted on Nov. 20 as saying.

In 2012, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes awarded Occidental $1.77 billion. The award was cut by 40 percent earlier this month.

"The conversations are very advanced and we have practically come to an agreement for the payment," Correa said in an interview with local press, without offering further details.

Ecuador seized the field known as Block 15 from Occidental in 2006, arguing that its sale to Andes Petroleum had been carried out without government consent.

At the time of the contract termination, Occidental was Ecuador's largest oil investor, extracting around 100,000 barrels of oil per day.