Chevron wins US$700m arbitration case against Ecuador
Agence France Presse | 31 March 2010
Chevron wins arbitration case against Ecuador
Chevron has won a 700-million-dollar arbitration battle against Ecuador. An international arbitration panel ruled that Ecuador’s courts "violated international law through their delays in ruling on certain commercial disputes between Texaco Petroleum Company and the Ecuadorian government," Chevron said in a statement.
The ruling also said that Ecuador violated the United States-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty "by failing to provide effective means of asserting claims and enforcing rights."
The award "partially resolves" seven claims that Texaco — which Chevron bought in 2001 — filed in Ecuador between 1991 and 1993.
"This ruling demonstrates that the government of Ecuador is not above the law," said Hewitt Pate, Chevron vice president and general counsel.
Chevron is separately being sued in Ecuador for damage allegedly caused to the Amazon rainforest between 1964 and 1990 by Texaco.
The Ecuadorans allege that Chevron dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon, and experts estimated in 2008 that Chevron could be liable for damages of up to 27 billion dollars.
