Tribunal Demands Ecuador Cease Enforcement of $19 Billion Chevron Case

At long last Chevron (NYSE: CVX) seems to have found some support in the case against Ecuador. An international tribunal has stated that Ecuador in fact violated the panel’s previous order to cease all attempts to enforce the $19 billion judgement made against Chevron.

In 2011 the tribunal, acting under The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration, told the Ecuadorean government to prevent the plaintiffs from taking the case to courts in Brazil, Argentina, and Canada in their search for the $19 billion that Chevron were told to pay them by an Ecuadorean court earlier in the year.

The statement was that the government should “take all measures at its disposal to suspend or cause to be suspended the enforcement or recognition within and without Ecuador of any judgment against (Chevron) in the Lago Agrio case.”

Related Articles: Chevron Hit by Record Fine for Richmond Refinery Fire

Chevron first contested the case being held against it back in 2009 when it approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration with the claim that Ecuador had breached a trade agreement made with the US by not ensuring a fair trial. Ecuador’s attorney general however stated that the bilateral trade agreement with Washington took effect five years after the events attained to in the case, and therefore the tribunal has no jurisdiction.

Chevron have decided to ignore this claim and are now considering whether they will sue for compensation through the tribunal, to pay for any damage that may have occurred to the company as a result Ecuador’s ‘illegal’ enforcement.

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com