oil spills
Wednesday, April 21st 2010
In the space of a week, a Chevron technical team has discovered two fresh oil spills in Ecuador’s oil-producing Amazon region. One covers three hectares (7.4 acres) near state-owned oil company Petroecuador’s Guanta production station in the heart of Cofan indigenous country. The other impacts half a hectare (1.2 acres) in the Sacha field, an area operated by the Rio Napo joint venture. The spill is near the village of San Carlos where plaintiffs’ lawyers and activists claim oil has caused an outbreak of health problems.
Yet the Amazon Defense Front, Amazon Watch and the Rainforest Action Network – groups backing a meritless lawsuit against Chevron – have said nothing. Despite claiming to advocate on behalf of the environment and the people of Ecuador’s Oriente, there have been no expressions of outrage. No denouncements of the companies operating in these areas. No indignant press releases. No press conferences. And, of course, no lawsuits.
April 17_2010: Photo facing northwest. General view of Petroecuador’s spill
April 17_2010: Photo facing southeast showing a berm built to dam fluids as part of the remediation activities by Petroecuador in the spill area located approximately 1 km North of Guanta Production Satation.
April 10_2010: Remediation activities of recent Petroecuador oil spill from production line near San Carlos.
April 10_2010: Remediation activities of recent Petroecuador oil spill from production line near San Carlos.
Location of Recent Oil Spills Occurred in the Former Petroecuador-Texpet Concession Area
Yet this behavior is consistent with an ongoing pattern of ignoring the conduct of Petroecuador and opposing Petroecuador’s clean-up efforts. Given their track record, one has to ask if these lawyers and activists are really advocates of the environment or the indigenous people they claim to represent?
It very well may be that the Amazon Defense Front, Amazon Watch, and the Rainforest Action Network are more interested in taking Chevron to the cleaners than actually cleaning up the Amazon.
Thursday, November 5th 2009
The U.S. trial lawyers behind the environmental lawsuit in Ecuador consistently assert that Chevron, a company that has never operated in Ecuador, is somehow responsible for the current state of Petroecuador’s environmental mismanagement. Moreover, when confronted with the reality of Petroecuador’s reckless performance over the last two decades, the lawyers try to claim that Petroecuador’s pollution is Chevron’s responsibility because (as they put it) Petroecuador “inherited” a “flawed production system” from Texaco Petroleum.
Such claims are patently false.
(1) It is well documented that Texaco Petroleum, now a fifth tier subsidiary of Chevron, operated in Ecuador as a minority partner with state owned Petroecuador. All consortium decisions were made jointly by Petroecuador, the Government of Ecuador and Texaco Petroleum. In fact, the system that Petroecuador assumed full responsibility for in 1992 was constructed in a manner consistent with applicable Ecuadorian regulations and with industry practices that are still in use in many places in the world today.
(2) In the last two decades, Petroecuador has spent over a billion dollars to more than double the size number of wells in the concession area. In an effort to increase oil production, Petroecuador has drilled more than 400 wells, which represent a cost of more than $1.2 billion and performed thousands of well workovers (250 at an approximate cost of $170,000 each in 2009). Yet, Petroecuador has spent little on corrosion prevention and maintenance which is critical to prevent oil spills. They also continue to use unlined pits, having constructed at least 270 pits (over 90% of which are located in the former concession area) in the last 3 years.
Montage of Ecuador media headlines showing numerous spills.
In the early 1990’s, after the Government of Ecuador made the decision not to renew the concession agreement, Texaco Petroleum spent $40 million remediating its share of the consortium operations. The Government of Ecuador then signed off on this remediation and granted Texaco a full release of liability from any future claims. Petroecuador has repeatedly acknowledged that it is their responsibility to remediate the rest of the sites in the concession area including “all of the pits.”
Since assuming complete control over Oriente oilfield operations, Petroecuador’s operations have generated over 1.2 billion barrels of crude oil and 260 million cubic feet of natural gas, representing a market value of over $57 billion. While the company has recently funneled more than a billion dollars into drilling new wells to maximize oil profits, they have spent little on environmental remediation and socioeconomic projects in the area. The lack of spending on maintenance and proper safeguards against spills has led to crumbling flowlines and pipelines, which has resulted in a deplorable record of oil spills.
Despite Petroecuador’s ongoing pollution, neither the Amazon Defense Coalition nor Amazon Watch has made Petroecuador a focus of their Oriente clean-up campaign, and they have never pursued any legal action against the state oil company. In fact, when Petroecuador began remediating pits in 2006, the Amazon Defense Coalition demanded that the company stop their long awaited cleanup plans as these efforts were “changing the lawsuit.”
While the U.S. trial lawyers and their partners consistently portray Petroecuador’s ongoing environmental mismanagement as the responsibility of Chevron, it is clearly not. The facts are clear – Texaco Petroleum acted responsibly and cleaned up its share of the consortium years ago, while the Government of Ecuador and Petroecuador have chosen profits over environmental stewardship.
Tuesday, September 22nd 2009
Petroecuador, Ecuador’s state-owned oil company, which has a record of environmental mismanagement, continues to drill wells and dig new waste oil pits in the concession area developed in a consortium with Texaco Petroleum.
New information reveals that Petroecuador has drilled more than 400 new wells in the concession area since it took over operations in 1990 – more wells than it drilled in the consortium with Texaco Petroleum between 1972 and 1990. Petroecuador has also dug more than 270 pits in the last 3 years alone.
While activist groups and the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the lawsuit against Chevron claim their desire is to have environmental damage in the Amazon remediated, they have failed to pursue Petroecuador for its responsibilities. They have even opposed Petroecuador’s efforts to remediate pits, fearing such actions might compromise their lawsuit. In fact, the plaintiffs’ local attorney, Pablo Fajardo, was quoted in an interview with La Hora on October 20, 2006 demanding that Petroecuador stop its remediation claiming it was altering his case.
Petroecuador has realized more than $70 billion in revenues over the course of its operations. Very little of those funds have been reinvested to maintain their equipment to prevent spills and remediate pits, or to help the local communities. Instead most of the profits went to the government and toward drilling new wells.
Since it took over operations in 1990, Petroecuador has:
• Been responsible for more than 1,400 spills between 2000 and 2008
• Spilled over 4.4 million gallons of oil
• Admitted it needs to clean up 370 consortia era pits in the concession
View a photo gallery or watch a video of Petroecuador’s environmental mismanagement.
