Nueva Loja[1], also known as Lago Agrio , is the capital of the province of Sucumbíos in Ecuador. It was founded in the 1960s as a base camp of Texaco. The official population as of the 2022 census is 55,627.[2]
Overview
Nueva Loja is located in central Sucumbíos, in the Amazonian forest, and is one of the most important cities in northeastern Ecuador. Its importance comes from the oil extraction. It was originally named after the town of Sour Lake, Texas by Texaco when the company established the oil-producing settlement. Lago Agrio is Spanish for "Sour Lake". The official name of the Ecuadorian town is Nueva Loja. Its current name originates from the fact that the first colonizers came from the Southern Province of Loja.
The area around the city, the Lago Agrio oil field