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Ecuador president calls former Texaco operations a 'barbarity'
Platts
QUITO
Petroleumworld.com 04 27 07
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa criticized the former operations of US
oil company Texaco, which is now part of Chevron, in the country's Amazon
region and called on the world to observe "the barbarity committed by the
multinational," according to a presidential statement issued Thursday.An environmental lawsuit is currently under way against Chevron in
Ecuador, where plaintiffs accuse the company of leaving behind pollution from
its oil production in the country from 1972-1990. Chevron, which merged with
Texaco in 2001, claims that any damage was remedied by a $40 million cleanup
approved by the government in 1998.President Correa is touring the Amazon region Thursday and Friday and
visiting some former Texaco production sites. The company should respond for
the damage, although the matter is "in the hands of the justice system,"
Correa said according to the release."Obviously, the president is not well informed," lawyer Rodrigo Perez,
who represented Texaco in Ecuador before the merger and now serves as a local
spokesman for Chevron, told Platts. "He has only seen and heard what the other
side has to say. He has not seen all the remediation work." A Chevron
spokesman at the company's San Ramon, California, headquarters said it would
not comment until after seeing Correa's statement.A ruling in the case could be handed down this year or next.
--Carla Bass, newsdesk@platts.com
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Platts 26 04 07
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