FDI Magazine – Will treaty save Chevron in Amazon rain forest dispute?
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.
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