Monday, January 25th 2010
Ecuador’s total foreign debt in November was $13.70 billion, a 19% decrease from $16.97 billion in the same month of 2008, the central bank said.
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Monday, January 25th 2010
Ecuador’s Block 15, in the Amazon region, has a natural decline of 3% per month in its production, meaning state-owned Petroamazonas SA will concentrate future investments in new projects, a high level government official said Monday.
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Monday, January 25th 2010
Petroamazonas SA, a unit of state-run Petroecuador, plans to invest around $550 million to develop oil block 31, and aims to produce up to 35,000 barrels per day, company general manager Wilson Pastor said Monday.
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Saturday, January 23rd 2010
QUITO – Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Thursday that a power-rationing program in place from November until Jan. 15 resulted in an estimated $250 million in losses for the commercial sector.
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Saturday, January 23rd 2010
Ecuador is toughening its stance in talks aimed at protecting its Amazon region through a deal under which rich countries would pay the government to refrain from drilling for oil, an official said on Friday.
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Saturday, January 23rd 2010
The popularity of Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa remains on the negative side, according to a poll by Cedatos/Gallup. 41 per cent of respondents approve of Correa’s performance, while 51 per cent disapprove of it, essentially unchanged since November.
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Thursday, January 21st 2010
In no other nature reserve in the world is there so much plant and animal diversity as in Yasuni National Park, in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, according to a new scientific study published in the journal “PLoS ONE.”
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Thursday, January 21st 2010
This Thurs., President Rafael Correa announced that his new Foreign Relations Minister will be Ricardo Patino. According to the leader, for the Defense and Foreign Relations departments “very loyal” people and of “great ideological consistency” are required as regards the political project. Patino will replace Fander Falconi, who resigned the Chancellery over discrepancies related to the management of the Yasuni-ITT ecological project. The new chancellor has enjoyed a long public sector career where he has served as Finance minister and Coastal minister.
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Thursday, January 21st 2010
“In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the plaintiffs say Chevron broke a promise Texaco Inc. made in 1999 to a New York federal court to abide by the Ecuadorean legal system if the court dismissed the environmental case.” – Wall Street Journal, 1/14/10
Chevron has never operated in Ecuador, a fact that cannot be disputed. Texaco’s role in oil operations in the country ended in 1992. Since then, Ecuador’s government owned oil company, Petroecuador, has been the exclusive operator of the oil fields and has amassed a deplorable environmental record.
The claim filed against Chevron on January 14 is erroneous and subsequent media statements by the plaintiffs are incorrect and misleading. Chevron did not agree to any stipulation concerning jurisdiction in Ecuador. In fact, Chevron was not a party to the prior New York action. American trial lawyers are once again distorting the record. To clarify, the case that was brought against Texaco in New York is totally different than what has been brought against Chevron in Ecuador. The case against Chevron in Ecuador does not seek an award for the 48 named plaintiffs. Rather, it seeks to force Chevron to pay for the remaining remediation work that the government of Ecuador has never performed. Under an agreement with the government of Ecuador, Texaco spent $40 million performing its agreed-upon share of the clean-up work. Texaco obtained full and complete releases after meeting all the requirements placed upon it by the government of Ecuador. The remaining remediation work required is the exclusive responsibility of the government of Ecuador. The case against Texaco in New York was dismissed. Period. It was not moved, transferred, or refilled. A brand new and totally different case was brought against Chevron in Ecuador. There are no stipulations from the New York action that cover a different claim against a different party in Ecuador. Texaco never waived its rights to seek the enforcement of valid agreements and contracts with the government of Ecuador. Texaco has never waived its rights to resist a verdict that is the product of fraud and a broken legal system.
It is important to understand that the two cases are very different. The case brought against Texaco in New York was about alleged personal injuries and alleged personal damages. The case against Chevron in Ecuador is exclusively about alleged damages to public lands. Of the 48 plaintiffs in the Ecuador case, there are no claims for personal injury or personal damages of any kind.
Wednesday, January 20th 2010
In 1993 Ecuador and United States inked a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) designed to encourage private sector development in Ecuador and to protect U.S. investment in the country.
But the government of Ecuador has long sought to evade its BIT obligations. In fact, Ecuador clearly broke this treaty when the country pursued a bad-faith, coordinated strategy with the Lago Agrio plaintiffs to use them as “stalking horses” in an attempt to avoid its own remediation responsibilities and contractual obligations, and instead to impose public environmental liabilities on Chevron only a few years after having settled and released Chevron from such liabilities. Chevron was therefore compelled to file an international arbitration claim against Ecuador under the BIT.
This filing likely came as no surprise to Ecuador. In fact, the government of Ecuador is notorious for unilaterally breaking contracts and evading its obligations. It was not until 2001 that the country of Ecuador was sued for the first time by a foreign company. However, since 2008, the year after President Rafael Correa took office, a large number of foreign companies began to file lawsuits. Currently, Ecuador is 2nd in the world in terms of pending international arbitration claims against the country; so much so that the cumulative sum of the 11 pending lawsuits would now equal nearly one-half of the country’s annual budget.
Desperate to avoid arbitration, Ecuador petitioned to have a U.S. court halt Chevron’s BIT claim. In doing so, Ecuador is seeking to delay arbitration and avoid ever having to own up to its treaty obligations. Further, it has become clear that Ecuador is aware that the country’s repudiation of its contractual obligations — combined with its denial of due process to foreign investors litigating in its courts — will not stand up to international scrutiny. Given the volume of international arbitration currently pending against the government of Ecuador, its action was unsurprising and suggests that the government must recognize that it will lose if this case proceeds before a legitimate and impartial forum.
There is no basis in fact or law for Ecuador to get a federal judge to stay arbitration that Ecuador agreed to by treaty with the United States. For that reason, on Jan 19th, Chevron filed a motion to dismiss the government of Ecuador’s opposition to international arbitration. More importantly, Chevron’s arbitration claim should proceed and the government of Ecuador should abide by its treaty and contractual obligations.
Wednesday, January 20th 2010
Chevron’s high-profile defense against a lawsuit seeking $27bn for environmental damages in Ecuador has ranged from YouTube postings to secretly-taped videos of the judge discussing the case in what it claims is evidence of political interference and corruption in the country. The nature of Chevron’s defence, which has included keeping those who did the secret taping away from media and the authorities, certainly is uncharacteristic of an oil major.
Typically these companies settle cases or do whatever else they can to avoid drawing negative attention to themselves. But, then again, this is no ordinary lawsuit. The damages being sought are extremely high – roughly a quarter of Chevron’s market capitalisation of $140bn or a fifth of its $160bn in assets.
Tuesday, January 19th 2010
In 2003, Silvia Garrigo, then a US lawyer for Chevron, was preparing to go into the Ecuadorian rainforest to collect soil samples for testing. She was accompanied by plaintiffs accusing the US’s second biggest oil company of having left a swathe of environmental destruction when it left the country in 1992.
“The plaintiffs’ entire technical team showed up in moon suits, with gas masks, put up red tape and said it was a dangerous zone,’’ recalls Ms Garrigo, now Chevron’s manager for global issues and policy.
Friday, January 15th 2010
“Radio Voice of Arutam, also known as the “Spirit of the Jungle” or the “Lord of the Waterfalls” and broadcasts to the Shuar indigenous community in the Amazon region has been taking off the air after a ruling by the Telecommunications National Council [es] (CONATEL for its initials in Spanish). CONTAEL said that the station violated Article 58 of the Broadcasting Act when it incited violence during protests against the government in October 2009.”
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Friday, January 15th 2010
“A plan to leave major oil reserves in Ecuador’s Amazon basin untouched in return for a major international donation was in jeopardy Thursday after Foreign Minister Fander Falconi resigned.”
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Friday, January 15th 2010
“Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa will keep promoting his initiative to protect the country’s Amazon region by refraining from drilling for oil, but warned on Thursday that his government will negotiate the deal hard.”
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Friday, January 15th 2010
“In his third year as president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa has repeated his determination to radicalise the process of “Citizen Revolution” although he admits there are some obstacles to achieve the goals.”
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Friday, January 15th 2010
“Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has threatened to drill for oil in one of the most biologically important and pristine areas of the Amazon River.
Fander Falconi, the country’s foreign minister, resigned yesterday after President Correa criticized his handling of negotiations to wrestle money from foreign governments interested in preserving a swath of virgin forests along the Amazon River.”
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Friday, January 15th 2010
The government of Ecuador and the American trial lawyers behind the lawsuit have colluded yet again in their attempt to extort $27 billion from Chevron.
Fenton Communications, the public relations agency that the government of Ecuador has paid $30,000 per month to “polish” President Rafael Correa’s public profile in the United States, and to lobby the U.S. Congress on its behalf, is now colluding with trial lawyers who are trying to extort money from Chevron Corporation.
On January 13, Correa’s PR firm issued a press release in an effort to tear down, with false accusations, new Chevron chairman and chief executive officer John Watson, just days into his term. In doing so, Fenton partnered with Amazon Watch, a San Francisco-based activist group that has partnered with and donated at least $67,889 to the Amazon Defense Coalition, the named financial beneficiary in the environmental lawsuit in Ecuador.
The New Yorker described Fenton Communications as a “firm that the government of Ecuador has hired to help Correa polish his profile in America,” while the agency’s own website touts its strategy to push for Ecuadorian trade benefits in Washington, D.C. over the past several years.
Time and again, President Correa has openly sided with the plaintiffs who are suing Chevron. This latest revelation weaves the web of connections even tighter between the forces that have levied fraudulent claims against Chevron and the supposedly impartial government of Ecuador.
This episode also further reinforces the fact that Chevron cannot receive a fair trial in Ecuador. It is clear the Government of Ecuador, its consultants and activist NGO partners are driving an illegitimate court process that will likely result in an unjust and unsubstantiated verdict against Chevron.
Thursday, January 14th 2010
“IN THE three years since he came to office, Rafael Correa has promised that his “Christian socialism” will provide Ecuadoreans with the good life where “neoliberalism” failed. A big increase in social spending, paid for at first by a high oil price and then by defaulting on debt, brought Mr Correa popular acclaim. He steered through a new constitution and last year had himself re-elected under it. He seemed to be defying his country’s recent history, in which the previous three elected presidents had failed to complete their terms.
But Ecuador’s mood is changing. Mr Correa’s approval rating fell from 72% to 42% in the year to November, according to Cedatos, a pollster. It also reported that this year his was the most popular figure to be burned in firecracker-filled effigy at traditional New Year’s Eve bonfires. His government has launched a campaign for positive thinking called “Smile, Ecuador”, but nowadays the mercurial Mr Correa is given to perennial frowning and cryptic warnings of impending coup attempts. “The way he’s going, he won’t last till the end of his term” in 2013, says Fabricio Correa, the president’s elder brother, who has become a bitter foe after denying accusations of corruption.”
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Thursday, January 14th 2010
“Han Shan, hired campaign organizer, is promoting a new video produced by Amazon Watch that smears Chevron with cancer claims that have been proven false long ago. The video titled, “Message from Ecuador to Chevron CEO John Watson” spins together bogus claims concocted by the Amazon Defense Coalition to increase pressure on Chevron to settle a trial lawyer funded lawsuit.”
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Tuesday, August 24th 2010
Reuters profiles the Chevron Ecuador case: A run-down court building that also houses the local casino in this Amazon jungle town is the unlikely venue for the largest environmental damages lawsuit ever tried. Read More »Tuesday, August 24th 2010
Reuters also features additional details of the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit: U.S.-based Chevron Corp (CVX.N) faces a $27 billion environmental damages lawsuit in Ecuador, a case that has already dragged on for years and could last many more if it gets bogged down in appeals. Read More »Friday, August 13th 2010
A new article on the Chevron Ecuador lawsuit: The story of Chevron in Ecuador already bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Dole in Nicaragua. A U.S. company persuades a U.S. judge to toss out an alien tort claim on forum non conveniens grounds. U.S. plaintiffs lawyers then seek jackpot damages in a Latin American court (while being lionized in a controversial documentary). The corporation discredits the Latin American court by returning to the U.S. courts and alleging fraud. In Dole's case, a judge in California state court found that some of the plaintiffs lawyers had misled the court. In the Chevron case, it appeared that the actor most clearly discredited was the Ecuadorian judge caught on film discussing damages with an outside party. But last week, as the Litigation Daily previously reported, Chevron's lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher filed a brief asserting that outtakes from the documentary Crude, turned over by the filmmaker in response to a Second Circuit discovery ruling, suggest that the plaintiffs lawyers themselves choreographed an "independent" expert's report recommending up to $27 billion in damages. Last year plaintiffs countered coverage of the judicial bias videotapes by attacking the motives and background of the American who secretly filmed the judge. Explaining the newly released footage will be more difficult. Based on what is known so far about the Crude outtakes, outrage seems appropriate. While the footage raises interesting questions of filmmaking ethics, what matters for the litigation is the apparent evidence of collusion between plaintiffs and court-appointed expert Richard Cabrera. Read More »
Wednesday, September 1st 2010
Discussion of the restrictions that Ecuador President Rafael Correa is placing on the media: Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua have passed new media laws—all of them aimed at clipping the wings of privately owned news sources—and the call for “social control of media” is viral among lefty groups. (It was unanimously endorsed, for instance, by participants at an August confab in Argentina of regional leftist parties—which now govern 11 Latin American countries—called the São Paulo Forum.) “The threat to freedom is all around,” says Amaury de Souza, a Brazilian political scientist. “And it’s growing.” Read More »Wednesday, September 1st 2010
This article discusses Ecuador's oil exports and imports of refined crude: Ecuador is one of Latin America’s largest oil exporters, with net oil exports estimated at 305,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2009. Read More »Wednesday, September 1st 2010
Ecuador signs second loan in two months with China: Ecuador and China signed on Tuesday a $1 billion loan deal as the Asian giant is pushing ahead with the policy of securing energy resources in Latin America and Africa. The fresh loan deal, which Ecuador's government signed in Beijing with the China Development Bank, comes just two months after Ecuador and the Export-Import Bank of China signed a $1.7 billion deal for financing a huge hydroelectric project in Ecuador. Read More »