Court to rule on ChevronTexaco case in 3-6 months

An Ecuadorian court is expected to rule in 3-6 months on a lawsuit brought by indigenous groups against oil multinational ChevronTexaco for alleged malpractice in upstream operations in the Amazon jungle, the executive director of environmental group Amazon Watch, Atossa Soltani, told BNamericas. The Lago Agrio court completed its first hearing in late October and now Judge Alberto Guerra will spend about three months inspecting oil pits with attorneys from both sides, Soltani said. Ecuador's supreme court will probably have to decide because ChevronTexaco would likely appeal against an unfavorable ruling, Soltani said. "In either case, there has been an important precedent set in that a company ,which basically operated with impunity, was made to stand trial and respond to those people who were affected," Soltani said. However, attorneys for ChevronTexaco argued that the plaintiffs did not present any substantiated evidence to support their claims, and Ecuador's government unconditionally released the company from all liabilities and obligations related to the oil operations in 1998. "Since the government released the company from any future liabilities or obligations, any claims should be made against the government and not the company," ChevronTexaco said in a statement dated October 21. Moreover, "laws referenced in the suit did not exist at the time of the operations and are not applicable and the statute of limitations has expired," the statement said. The case was first filed 10 years ago in New York, but it was eventually sent back to Ecuador with the provision that the ruling would be enforceable in the US. Attorneys representing some 30,000 residents claim that ChevronTexaco's former subsidiary, Texaco Petroleum, dumped wastewater into estuaries, rivers and unlined pits from 1968 to 1992, destroying sources of drinking water, killing farm animals and causing health problems in an area "three times the size of Manhattan," Soltani said. "They drilled for oil using outdated technology, where instead of re-injecting wastewater, they pretty much dumped it into the environment," Soltani said, adding that 627 oil waste pits have been documented. A report by US consulting firm Global Environmental Operations found that ChevronTexaco would need to spend US$6bn to clean up the oil pits, rivers and groundwater. The affected area is a "second Chernobyl," according to report author David Russell. Amazon Watch is supporting the plaintiffs in the case. "Something has to be done, there has to be clean up and we think ChevronTexaco is responsible. They took out over one billion barrels of oil, so you figure out what their profits were," Soltani said. However, ChevronTexaco said that groups like Amazon Watch and the plaintiffs' lawyers have their own interests in the case. "US lawyers stand to gain significantly more financial benefit than the individuals they purport to represent," the press release said. ChevronTexaco officials were not returning calls from BNamericas.