Wednesday, March 31st 2010
A journalist facing a 3-year prison sentence for defamation accused Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Tuesday of orchestrating his prosecution as a warning that critics of the government will be severely punished.
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Wednesday, March 31st 2010
Chevron Oil (NYSE: CVX), based in San Ramon California, announced it has won $764M in its ongoing arbitration battle with the government of Ecuador concerning that government’s claims of massive environmental damage related to past oil operations by Chevron’s subsidiary, Texaco Petroleum Company.
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Wednesday, March 31st 2010
Chevron Corp (CVX.N) has won a three-year-old arbitration fight against Ecuador over a commercial dispute as it battles the country separately over an environmental claim against the company that could result in $27 billion in damages.
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Wednesday, March 31st 2010
Chevron Corp. has been awarded about $700 million by an international arbitration court that ruled in favor of its claim against Ecuador over past operations at its Texaco unit, the company said.
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Tuesday, March 30th 2010
SAN RAMON, Calif. – Mar. 30, 2010 – An international arbitration tribunal has ruled in favor of Chevron in a claim against Ecuador related to past oil operations by Chevron’s subsidiary, Texaco Petroleum Company. The tribunal, administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, found that Ecuador’s courts violated international law through their delays in ruling on certain commercial disputes between Texaco Petroleum Company and the Ecuadorian government.
Today’s ruling is distinct from arbitral claims Chevron and Texaco Petroleum filed against Ecuador in 2009 in connection with the Lago Agrio litigation.
In its decision, the tribunal found that Ecuador had violated the United States-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty by failing to provide effective means of asserting claims and enforcing rights. As a result, the tribunal awarded Chevron and Texaco Petroleum Company approximately US$700 million in principal damages and interest as of December 22, 2006, pending further proceedings to determine applicable taxes, compound interest, and costs.
“This ruling demonstrates that the government of Ecuador is not above the law,” said Hewitt Pate, Chevron vice president and general counsel. “We have maintained for some time that Ecuador’s courts are failing to administer justice when it comes to Chevron and its affiliates, and an international tribunal has now agreed. We hope this ruling will help move Ecuador towards proper treatment of foreign investors and respect for the rule of law.”
The arbitral award partially resolves seven commercial claims that Texaco Petroleum Company, now a Chevron subsidiary, filed in Ecuador between 1991 and 1993. Ecuadorian courts continually delayed and refused to rule on Texaco Petroleum’s cases, which has been found to constitute a breach of Ecuador’s treaty with the United States.
Chevron and Texaco Petroleum Company filed the arbitration in December 2006 under the Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The Permanent Court of Arbitration is an intergovernmental organization with over one hundred member countries established by international convention in 1899 to facilitate arbitration and other forms of dispute resolution. The United States acceded to the Court’s founding convention in 1900 and Ecuador acceded in 1907.
The tribunal is not alone in highlighting the Ecuadorian courts’ failure to provide justice to foreign investors. In February 2009, the United States Department of State released its Investment Climate Statement for Ecuador, which stated, “Systemic weakness and susceptibility to political or economic pressures in the rule of law constitute the most important problem faced by U.S. companies investing in or trading with Ecuador.” The report went on to state, “corruption is a serious problem in Ecuador,” and that, “the courts are often susceptible to outside pressure and bribes.”
Ecuador is defending the second largest arbitration docket in the world with more than 11 claims seeking more than US$6.5 billion in damages. Ecuador has withdrawn from the World Bank’s arbitration program, making it the second country ever to do so, and has indicated its intention to cancel scores of bilateral investment treaties that provide for international arbitration of investment disputes. The country has also fallen out of favor with international financial markets since defaulting on more than $3 billion of foreign debt after a government-appointed panel declared the debt to be “illegitimate.”
Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company’s success is driven by the ingenuity and commitment of its employees and their application of the most innovative technologies in the world. Chevron is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. The company explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and other energy products; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.
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Thursday, March 25th 2010
IT WAS long an island of tranquillity surrounded by countries racked by guerrillas and drug trafficking. But whereas violence has declined in Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has acquired a reputation as a new capital of financial crime. Last month the Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental body, declared that Ecuador has not shown “a clear high-level political commitment” to address its “strategic deficiencies” in fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorism. That put it on a list with the likes of North Korea, Iran and Turkmenistan.
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Monday, March 22nd 2010
Chevron (CVX) may become the greenest oil company in the world now that the San Ramon-based company won a significant court victory in the legal fight over oil-field contamination in Ecuador.
U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand ruled earlier this month that Chevron can pursue arbitration in the case. The government of Ecuador and attorneys representing Amazon Watch and Amazon Defense Coalition had asked the judge to reject arbitration in the almost two-decades old legal case.
Little noticed in the ruling favoring Chevron was a statement that may come back to haunt Ecuador and Amazon Watch attorneys–and could make Chevron Corporation not only the most beloved corporation in Ecuador, but perhaps the greenest oil company ever.
Friday, March 19th 2010
Ecuador has suspended negotiations with China for the financing of an almost $2 billion hydroelectric power plant, which would be the country’s largest, Finance Minister Maria Elsa Viteri said.
Friday, March 19th 2010
Foreign Relations Minister Ricardo Patino said the European Union still wishes to resume trade agreement negotiations with Ecuador
Wednesday, March 17th 2010
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s $27 billion environmenal lawsuit against Chevron has all the characteristics of a corrupt banana republic:
Judicial intimidation, bribery and bogus studies by paid-off experts.
In the long-running, government-backed suit against the giant American oil company, which vows it will never give in to what it calls a “shakedown” by the government and its political cronies, Chevron rejects that it is liable for any claims of environmental damage in the country’s Amazon region.
Tuesday, March 16th 2010
Asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously explained: “Because that’s where the money is.” American attorneys working on a contingency basis have long embraced similar logic when suing corporations on their clients’ behalf. But even in the hyperlitigious US, companies are able to defend themselves against frivolous claims. That is not always the case in the developing world, which is why multinationals are cheering a recent US legal ruling.
Monday, March 15th 2010
President Rafael Correa partially vetoed a proposed Citizen Participation Law and suggested a measure that would permit citizens to request accountability from the media once a year, similar to that of public enterprises, reportó El Tiempo reports.
For Correa, media are a public service and should be accountable to the population, El Universo adds.
Friday, March 12th 2010
Chevron Corp. won a round Thursday in the long legal fight over oil-field contamination in Ecuador, with a U.S. judge ruling that the company can pursue arbitration in the case.
But the final outcome of the fight, which could cost Chevron $27.3 billion, remains very much in doubt.
Friday, March 12th 2010
A judge ruled Thursday that Chevron can proceed with an international arbitration claim against Ecuador related to a 17-year-old court battle over rain forest contamination in that South American nation.
U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand in Manhattan rejected an attempt by Ecuador to block the arbitration but also said his decision was limited in scope and left the arbitration panel to decide what, if anything, it will hear and when.
Friday, March 12th 2010
In the ongoing court battle between Chevron and the Country of Ecuador, Chevron won a court victory against Ecuador today. According to Reuters, A U.S. District Court Judge in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, granted Chevron the right to pursue an order to have via Ecuador to complete environmental cleanup work it and the state-run Petroecuador Oil Company were to have done when it took over oil production from Chevron-Texaco in 1992. Chevron will seek to have this done under the “U.S. – Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty.”
Friday, March 12th 2010
Judge Juan NÚñez was getting up to leave the Holiday Inn conference room in Quito, Ecuador. It was June 5, 2009, and he was meeting with an American who wanted information.
Specifically, Wayne Hansen wanted to know if Núñez was going to hold Chevron Corporation liable for $27 billion for polluting the Amazon Basin. Hansen was posing as a contractor who stood to receive large sums for cleaning up the jungle. The judge probably did not know that Hansen had once been convicted of conspiring to sell 137 tons of marijuana.
He certainly did not know that Hansen was capturing their conversation with a Spy Pen video camera, which retails online for $149.99.
Thursday, March 11th 2010
On Thursday, a U.S. judge granted Chevron’s motion to dismiss the government of Ecuador’s attempt to block the company’s international arbitration claim from proceeding. In his decision, Judge Sand declined to stay international arbitration in a dispute between Ecuador’s government and Chevron. Stating in his ruling that, “a stay of arbitration is inappropriate.”
Chevron is pleased that the Bilateral Investment Treaty arbitration can proceed. Chevron is seeking to hold Ecuador and its government owned oil company, Petroecuador, to the promise they made to complete the environmental cleanup of the Amazon.
Texaco Petroleum did its share of the cleanup as promised, and Petroecuador now needs to own up to its promises and address the environmental problems wrongly being blamed on Chevron.
Only the international arbitration panel can bring Ecuador to the table and compel Petroecuador to do the right thing and clean up its oil fields. With today’s decision, we are one step closer to making that a reality.
Wednesday, March 10th 2010
Representatives from both countries signed an agreement for the construction of three hydroelectricity plants in Ecuador
Wednesday, March 10th 2010
Iran plans to build two power plants in Ecuador, First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi has been reported as saying.
“Both sides agreed to expand cooperation in all fields,” he said, on the sidelines of his meeting with Ecuadorian First Vice President Lenin Moreno in Tehran on Sunday, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network reported.
Monday, March 8th 2010
President Rafael Correa said Saturday his administration has a “plan B” up its sleeve in the event the Yasuni-ITT initiative – a proposal by Ecuador to leave Amazon oil in the ground in exchange for international compensation – is unsuccessful.
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Thursday, June 24th 2010
Another post on Amazon Watch and the Chevron Ecuador case: While Amazon Watch and Steven Donziger yell and scream about American Chevron in an attempt to extort billions while claiming to represent Ecuador's "indigenous people," Ecuador President Rafael Correa is just one signed contract away from that country successfully nationalizing revenue from its oil industry. Read More »Thursday, June 24th 2010
This new blog post on the San Francisco Chronicle's website discusses Steven Donziger's role in the trial in Ecuador and the fabricated "independent court expert" report: In the never-ending Chevron Ecuador legal battle, Laywer Steven Donziger (the head of a decade-long battle to extort billions from Chevron for environmental damage caused by the Ecuador-owned Petroecuador and Ecuador President Rafael Correa's policy of allowing oil production in the Amazon, while having kicked out American oil companies) and the Amazon Watch organization yesterday called for additional damages against Chevron in Ecuador, citing alleged sabotage of the court proceedings by Chevron. Read More »Friday, June 11th 2010
Chevron Ecuador case is profiled: After years of litigation over its liability for environmental damage in the Amazon rain forest, the Chevron Corporation is going all-in in its fight with Ecuador by seeking to persuade a panel of international arbitrators that the country’s courts cannot be trusted to dispense justice for foreign investors. Last September, the US oil giant filed a claim for ‘denial of justice’ under a foreign investment protection treaty between the US and Ecuador. The claim is now a major part of the company’s damage-control strategy. Chevron has been readying itself for some time for a massive loss in the Ecuadorian courts, where plaintiffs are seeking to saddle the firm with a $30bn clean-up bill. Chevron insists that Ecuador’s state oil company, PetroEcuador, bears liability for any clean-up, adding that the country’s politically tainted courts are colluding with PetroEcuador and the country’s government to lay the blame at Chevron’s door. Read More »
Friday, July 30th 2010
Ecuador will begin in August the contract talks with foreign oil companies operating in the country: Ecuador will begin negotiating with oil majors in August new contracts to favor the state, Non-Renewable Resources Minister Wilson Pastor said on Thursday, setting the clock ticking for firms in the OPEC nation. Read More »Friday, July 30th 2010
Ecuador is planning to show new draft contracts to oil companies operating in the country: Ecuador's government plans to submit to private oil companies on Friday the model contract that will be used to exchange current production-sharing deals for service contracts. Negotiations with each company will start in the second week of August, the country's minister for non-renewable natural resources said Thursday. Read More »Friday, July 30th 2010
Ecuador will decide on a contract with a subsidiary of a U.S. based oil company: Ecuador will decide by November whether to continue the contract of Energy Development Corp., or EDC, a subsidiary of U.S.-based oil and gas producer Noble Energy Inc. (NBL), the country's minister for non-renewable natural resources told Dow Jones Newswires. Read More »