Ecuadorians Sue Chevron For Dumping Oil (VIDEO)

"60 Minutes'" Scott Pelley went on another environmental adventure this week, this time to South America.

Texaco -- now owned by Chevron -- made trouble in Ecuador for oil drilling practices that have endangered the homes and water supply of people living there:

Generally two or three pits were carved out near the well site. Trouble is, when Texaco finished its drilling, the waste pits were abandoned by the hundreds and for decades.

Now, the Ecuadorian people and Chevron are in a heated legal battle over $27 billion.

Watch the full "60 Minutes" segment:

Comments

[rwext]

03:57 PM on 05/06/2009

Petro Equador , run by the socialist marxist government is at fault.. If Texaco were still in charge ... Well look at how well Chavez runs it in Venezuela......And now coming to the US in 100 days

[TxAggie]

09:37 PM on 05/07/2009

Exactly. When an oil company deals with a foreign country they deal with the host government. Private ownership of oil and gas rights (as in the US) is extremely rare. Texaco was a partner with PetroEcuador. They left under an agreement with a soverign government, they were released and indemnified. Now PetroEcuador has been poluting the hell out of the rain forest and the deck is stacked against the big Gringo oil company WHO HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. Our government should step in and go to bat for Chevron.

[TxAggie]

03:35 PM on 05/06/2009

PetroEcuador has been operating this stuff since 1992 and they agreed to release Texaco from liability at that point. The government owned 60% of the wells and have owned 100% since 1992. In Ecuador the minerals belong to the federal government and they and they alone have the right to contract for the development of the minerals, not the people- that is their law. Now the locals are coming after the rich gringo company. THis claim is a sham- the liability, the blame, the responsibility is solely PetroEcuador- Chevron had nothing to do with it- they bought Texas in 2001!!!!

[silverball]

02:07 PM on 05/06/2009

....and why does anyone wonder why we have problems in our relationships in south america???.....sheeeesh.....

[mjt218]

05:39 PM on 05/07/2009

Venezuela, Argentina, Columbia and Brazil (and probably others) are still doing major business with Chevron and Texaco is still among the largest gasoline retailers in South America. Up until last year, Texaco had an endorsement deal with Ronaldhino . . . I don't think this has much of an impact on the US's relationship with countries in South America.

[AnnaKay1979]

10:51 PM on 05/05/2009

Maybe now people will start paying attention to what’s happening to those poor Ecuadorians. Chevron needs to stop that nonsense and take responsibility for the mess they left behind.
To find out more about this environmental mess, read this blog: www.thechevronpit.blogspot.com

[TxAggie]

02:53 PM on 05/07/2009

PetroEcuador needs to take responsibility for their actions, Chevron has nothing NADA, zip to do with it. The poor Ecuadorians are being screwed by their own government.

[hart444]

09:05 PM on 05/05/2009

Great piece, 60 Minutes. That woman was one cold lady dog.

[njmagel]

07:50 PM on 05/05/2009

Wow it seems that Chevron can't even swallow their own lies. What a testament to the communities relentless organizing, for decades, against one of the worlds largest oil corporations!

They have got to be worried when outlets like the Wall Street Journal are reporting on shareholders, accounting for over $ 1billion in Chevron shares, are questioning Chevron's decisions.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914867284999153.html

The shareholder meeting in San Ramon CA, on May 27th should be an interesting one.

[lizardbrain]

07:37 PM on 05/05/2009

Hideous. Texaco/Chevron ducking their responsibility and dragging out a lawsuit for 16 years. Wow.

A little more of the Ecuador backstory (video) here: http://www.dasolar.com/alternative-energy/crude-oil

[joebaggadonuts]

02:49 PM on 05/06/2009

Too bad for them they couldn't buy the Governor of a state, and some other officials, as well as being able to throw lurid parties with folks in the organization responsible for administering their government oil lease contracts. Otherwise the lawsuit would not have got this far. Imagining that this kind of behavior is limited to outside US activity has got us into this mess. Has Exxon paid for that spill in Prudhoe Bay from the Exxon Valdez yet? How many billions have we lost to the oil cos on their leases because of the IMS activity or lack thereof? How many government officials have oil tankers that have been named after them?

From Alaska... http://www.gregpalast.com/stick-your-damn-hand-in-it-20th-birthday-of-the-exxon-valdez-lie/

Two years after the spill, Otto Harrison, General Manager of Exxon USA, told Evanoff and me to forget about a fishing boat for Uncle Paul. Exxon was immortal and Natives were not. The company would litigate for 20 years.

They did. Only now, two decades on, Exxon has finally begun its payout of the court award -- but only ten cents on the dollar. And Uncle Paul's boat? No matter. Paul's dead. So are a third of the fishermen owed the money.