Occidental Petroleum ( OXY - news - people ) and others reduced debt loads by doing precisely that--exchanging their debts for cash or equity.

FORBES: Catalytic Tax Changes

Two other techniques, called gasification and oxy-combustion, work by reacting coal with pure oxygen rather than air, and thus produce exhausts that require little treatment before burial.

ECONOMIST: Carbon capture and storage

But in May 2006 Ecuador seized the fields of Occidental Petroleum (nyse: OXY - news - people ), claiming that the company had violated its operating contract.

FORBES: Chavistas in Quito

In the process, Apache will leapfrog Occidental Petroleum ( see recent Forbes story on Oxy) to become the fourth-biggest U.S. oil company (by production, but not market cap) after ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

FORBES: Apache Snags BP Assets For $7 Billion

Below is a long-term dividend history chart for OXY, which can be of good help in judging whether the most recent dividend with approx. 2.9% annualized yield is likely to continue.

FORBES: Top Buys by Directors: Poladian's $367.1K Bet on OXY

Yet mitigating the risk of default is the fact that Ecuador's ability to service its debt has improved in recent months, as high energy prices, increased taxation of the oil sector and the state's take-over of Block 15 previously run by a US company, Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), are boosting the fiscal surplus and foreign reserves.

ECONOMIST: Ecuador's radical new president promises big changes