Chevron Corp has won a three-year-old arbitration fight against Ecuador over a commercial dispute as it battles the country separately over an environmental claim against the company that could result in US$27 billion in damages.
An arbitration panel ruled on Tuesday that Ecuador’s courts violated international law by delaying rulings on commercial disputes between a subsidiary of the second-largest US oil company and Ecuador’s government.
The arbitration panel partially resolved seven claims that Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, filed in Ecuador from 1991 to 1993, and awarded the company US$700 million, Chevron said.
“It is a partial decision,” Ecuador’s solicitor general, Diego Garcia, said in a statement. “It is inexact to say that Ecuador has been ordered to pay compensation of US$700 million.”
The panel found Ecuador’s courts had breached a trade treaty between the country and the US by not ruling on the cases.
It is the same treaty that Chevron is citing in its arbitration claim filed in September over alleged interference by the government in a blockbuster case brought by indigenous Ecuadoreans who accuse Texaco of damaging the environment and their health through its operations there.
With a ruling by the Ecuadorean judge on that case expected at some point this year, lawyers for the plaintiffs accused Chevron of forum shopping by bringing in the arbitrators.
Chevron has spent 17 years battling that claim, which a court expert has said could result in damages of up to US$27 billion against the San Ramon, California-based company.
The plaintiffs and Chevron both expect the court to rule against the company, which vows to appeal any ruling against it, arguing that Ecuador’s courts are biased.
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