By Nathan Gill
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa said today that he has given the order to begin a lawsuit against Repsol YPF SA, Spain’s largest oil company, and Perenco SA, a French oil company, over their failure to pay taxes.

Correa said during his weekly address to the nation that both companies hadn’t paid taxes on “extraordinary profits” and that he would “not respect external rulings” telling the South American country what to do.

    
Repsol’s spokesman in Ecuador, Federico Cruz, said today by phone from Quito that the company was “negotiating with the government” and hoped to sign a contract “very soon.”

The companies are disputing an increase in Ecuador’s oil windfall-profits tax.