QUITO, June 5 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean Indigenous

organizations and environmental advocacy groups on Wednesday

protested state-run oil company Petroecuador, saying it is

failing to comply with a court order to shut gas flares in the

Amazon ( AMZN ), though the government said it was closing them.

In 2021, a provincial tribunal in Sucumbios province ordered

Petroecuador and a handful of private operators to stop at least

486 flares in inhabited areas by March 2023 and rural places by

2030. Flares burn off natural gas emitted during oil production

when there is no infrastructure to capture it.

Residents of the area, who have long alleged slow progress

on the shut down, said Petroecuador is merely turning off the

flares and sending the gas to larger flaring operations in the

Amazon ( AMZN ).

"They are turning off the flares and that is not the

objective. The objective is their total elimination," said Jairo

Salazar, a lawyer for affected residents, as he attended the

protest outside the constitutional court. "It's a mockery of the

Ecuadorean Amazon."

A group of residents from the Amazon ( AMZN ) have been holding a

hunger strike at a church in Quito for about 10 days to pressure

the government.

Salazar said just 63 flares have been shut down in the

provinces of Orellana and Sucumbios, but Energy Minister Roberto

Luque told a congressional commission on Wednesday 145

Petroecuador flares have been eliminated and there is a plan to

shut 341 more by 2030, including those run by private companies.

Petroecuador has said that shutting and taking down each

flare takes between 12 and 36 months depending on location and

other factors.