Ecuador judge hearing Chevron case changed again
* Chevron asked for judge to be replaced
* Previous judge had recused himself last year
* Plaintiffs seek $27 billion in environmental damages (Adds Chevron comment)
LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The judge hearing an oil pollution lawsuit against Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote) in Ecuador has been replaced, the court said on Friday, setting the stage for the third judge in a year to take over the $27 billion case.
A previous judge in the 18-year-old lawsuit, which was started in New York before being moved to Ecuador, recused himself last year after he was accused of misconduct and involvement in a bribery scheme.
The case, being heard in Sucumbios provincial court, has spawned related legal actions in various U.S. courts and an international arbitration, and is being closely watched by the industry for precedents that could lead to other large lawsuits against oil companies.
Chevron asked last month for Judge Leonardo Ordonez to recuse himself because he did not investigate evidence of collusion between the plaintiffs and Richard Cabrera, the court-appointed expert who came up with potential damages of up to $27 billion.
"I have removed Ordonez" from the case, Nicolas Zambrano, also of Sucumbios court, told Reuters.
Zambrano himself will hear the case, he said.
Chevron has said Texaco remediated all areas of the jungle for which it was responsible. The company has also said that geologist Cabrera colluded with the plaintiffs' lawyers and technical consultants to develop a fraudulent damages assessment.
"With the removal of Judge Ordonez, it is our hope that the prior bias displayed by the court will be remedied, that the proper authorities will address the plaintiffs' lawyers' misconduct, and that Chevron's motion for the trial to be dismissed due to fraud will receive genuine consideration," Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said in an e-mailed statement.
Karen Hinton, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for the plaintiffs, said Chevron had sought to derail the Ecuador case many times since it began seven years ago.
"Removing yet another judge is part of Chevron's strategy of distract and delay," Hinton said in an e-mailed statement.
In September 2009, Judge Juan Nunez stepped down from hearing the lawsuit in Lago Agrio after he was recorded discussing it with a couple of men who secretly videotaped him with cameras stuck inside a wristwatch and a pen.
Zambrano stepped in a year and two days ago to preside over the case but then handed it over to Ordonez when Ordonez was named president of Sucumbios provincial court. [ID:nN22192851] (Reporting by Victor Gomez, with additional reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN0125462520101001?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
Judge Is Removed From Chevron's Ecuador Pollution Lawsuit
By Isabel Ordonez, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
The judge overseeing a multibillion-dollar pollution lawsuit against Chevron Corp. (CVX) in Ecuador has been removed from the case following a request by the company, according to court documents.
In an order issued Thursday, the president of Ecuador's Lago Agrio court, Nicolas Zambrano, asked Judge Leonardo Ordonez to stop overseeing the case.
In a phone interview with Dow Jones Newswires on Friday, Ordonez confirmed that he had been taken off the case. "I truly don't understand why they have asked me to stop overseeing the case, because all my actions have strictly followed Ecuadorean laws," Ordonez said.
Ordonez's recusal comes two weeks after he had told parties that the trial period had ended, which means no more evidence can be introduced in the case. In August, Chevron asked the court to remove Ordonez, accusing him of lack of impartiality. Last year, a predecessor, Juan Nunez, recused himself from the case amid controversy brought up by the company, although he denied wrongdoing. Ordonez was the seventh judge to oversee the case.
The departure of Ordonez is the latest development in a long-running legal case brought by natives of Ecuador's Amazon region against Texaco Inc. over allegations of environmental damage. Chevron, of San Ramon, Calif., inherited the lawsuit after it bought Texaco in 2001 and denies any responsibility for environmental damage in the region. The plaintiffs say that Texaco in the 1990s left behind massive amounts of oil pollution, which a court-appointed expert said would take $27 billion to repair.
The judge's removal is likely to delay a ruling on the case, which was expected in March or April.
"There is overwhelming evidence of fraud on the part of the Lago Agrio plaintiffs' lawyers that Judge Ordonez knowingly ignored. With the removal of Judge Ordonez, it is our hope that the prior bias displayed by the court will be remedied," said James Craig, an spokesman for Chevron.
Plainttiffs' spokeswoman Karen Hinton said that Ordonez's removal is "part of Chevron's strategy of distract and delay."
In the interview, Ordonez said all his actions were in compliance with Ecuadorean law. His decision to stop accepting evidence resulted from the fact that all the phases of the trial had ended, he said.
-By Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9207; isabel.ordonez@ dowjones.com
(Mercedes Alvaro contributed to this report.) -0-
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Ecuador mining spared from unrest, risks seen
Ecuador is only a marginal producer of precious metals, but foreign companies operating in the country's remote Amazon jungle have found some world-class gols, silver and copper deposits.
Renewed political unrest could scare away investment in the sector that is still reeling from a mining ban ordered by Correa allies that last for over a year between 2008 and 2009, industry sources said.
"If this protest continues companies could be force to scale back on their spending," said a consultant of mining companies in Ecuador, asking for his name not to be used because he was not allowed to speak publicly. "This is going to have a lasting effect on the industry."
Correa, a close ally to firebrand Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has moved to boost state control over the oil and mining sector and defaulted on part of its foreign debt, scaring away investors in the Andean nation.
Canada's Kinross Gold (K.TO: Quote), which owns one of Ecuador's largest gold deposits, said exploration work remains normal even after allowing some of its administration employees in the capital Quito to stay home until unrest subsides.
Kinross and IamGold (IMG.TO: Quote) are some of the main miners exploring in Ecuador. Their shares are unlikely to suffer from the upheaval as operations in the country remain small when compared with their holdings worldwide. (Reporting by Alonso Soto and Brad Haynes; Editing by)
Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFN3021225220101001?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
more:http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ecuador+urges+Canada+help+limit+drilling/3589152/story.html#ixzz11G4dfQ1W
Ecuador urges Canada to help limit drilling
more:http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ecuador+urges+Canada+help+limit+drilling/3589152/story.html#ixzz11G4dfQ1W
Ecuador Requests International Reimbursement To Keep Its Oil In The Ground
First Posted: 09-28-10 03:02 PM | Updated: 09-28-10 07:53 PM
by Laura Bassett
Ecuador's Yasuni National Park, a 4,000-square-mile rainforest, is home to 100,000 species of insects, 655 species of trees, and at least two isolated populations of natives, making it one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. It also happens to sit on nearly a billion barrels of untapped oil -- equivalent to about $7 billion in potential revenue for the country's struggling economy.
In spite of enormous economic pressure to drill, the Ecuadorian government made an unprecedented proposal in 2007: It would forego drilling in the Yasuni rainforest if the international community agreed to reimburse it for at least $3.6 billion over the next 13 years, or half of what it would earn from exploiting the oil. The idea has been slow to catch on, but on August 3 Ecuador and the United Nations Development Program signed an agreement to put in place a trust fund where countries can contribute to the initiative. Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Spain have already offered their financial support to Ecuador, and China, Korea and Japan have recently expressed interest in participating.
Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador met with UN officials in New York this week to finalize negotiations for the unprecedented initiative, which, if successful, has the potential to become a paradigm for global rainforest conservation programs. She told HuffPost that she is amazed by the amount of support the initiative has received from even the poorest communities in Ecuador.
"I think that the visionary attitude of the Ecuadorian people is amazing," she said. "Eight out of ten people support the initiative. They are in favor of sacrificing the money, and in exchange providing humanity with cleaner air biodiversity and cultural diversity, because we are also saving the lives and habitats of several indigenous populations."
Espinosa said she thinks the initiative will receive a great deal of international support because of its implications for climate change. By foregoing the drilling of 865 billion barrels of oil, Ecuador will avoid the emission of 407 million metric tons of CO2 -- equivalent to the total emissions of a country like France or Brazil for an entire year. And in addition to reducing oil consumption and emissions, as part of the UNDP agreement, Ecuador will invest the money they receive in renewable energy and social programs.
"Even the oil companies are recognizing that this initiative is a very creative alternative to drilling," Espinosa said. "We're breaking the status quo, breaking what already existed in terms of corporate responsibility. And the international community will contribute because they recognize the service we are providing."
The plan for the immediate future, Espinosa said, is to travel to the United States, Holland, Norway, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, and Lebanon to seek contributions and seal negotiations. She hopes to raise $100 million in the first 18 months.
Alberto Acosta, Ecuador's former minister of energy, told The Guardian that Ecuador is feeling the pressure to succeed.
"The race is now on," he said. "If Ecuador attracts $100 million for Yasuni within the year, the oil will not be extracted. If it does not... it will be the end of the two uncontacted tribes and a vast swath of the most diverse forest in the world. Above all, however, it will be a tragedy for the world, because the only country which has had the chance to reject the extractive development path and demonstrate what is possible will have blown it."
Oil: Can Ecuador see past the black stuff?
A revolutionary plan to leave Ecuador's abundant oil in the ground could show the world just what's possibleRead more from John's Latin American travels
One of the most extraordinary people I have met in 10 days of travelling around Peru and Ecuador has been Alberto Acosta. He's head of Ecuador's leading research group now, but until 2007 was the second most powerful man in the country after the president, Rafael Correa. He was not only charged with masterminding the new constitution but was head of the assembly, or parliament, a founder of the ruling political party and minister of energy of the country that depends on oil.
But Acosta will go down in history as the world's only serving oil minister to have ever proposed leaving a country's black stuff in the ground. That's like Dracula renouncing blood, or a sports minister saying it's better to play hide and seek than football. It just does not happen.
He is the architect of the Ecuadorean government's plan to guarantee to leave 965m barrels of oil in the Yasuni national park in eastern Ecuador if the world contributes $100m in the next year and eventually around $3.6bn. The revolutionary economic idea to earn money by not exploiting a resource has been endorsed by the government and will be administered by the UN Development Programme.
Acosta was accused of being crazy by some of his cabinet peers, but is clearly anything but. He's an old oil man, a trained economist and he argues vehemently that it makes political, economic and ecological sense to leave the oil in the ground. He calculates that if the Yasuni oil is drilled, it will earn Ecuador around $7bn. But against that must be put the incalulable cost of climate pollution, of trashing the Amazon rainforest, and of the conflict and devastation it will cause in one of the most diverse regions of the world. In addition, two uncontacted tribes believed to be in the vicinity of the exploration block where the oil has been found will almost certainly be made extinct.
Acosta's thinking is not new but part of a growing body of global evidence for the phenomenom called "resource curse". This is the idea that mineral and oil-rich developing countries stay poor, foster corruption, encourage dictators and trash the environment. From Nigeria to Sudan, and Equatorial Guinea to Gabon, oil has distorted economies and led to trouble and human rights abuses. As the Venezuelan Juan Pablo Alfonso, one of the Opec founders, said: "You will see: oil will bring us ruin … oil is the devil's excrement."
Acosta has written about this in his bestseller La Maldición de la Abundancia (The Curse of Plenty) and he is adamant that Ecuador is in danger of going the same way. "Yes, oil is very important to Ecuador," he told us. "But abundance is bad. We have extracted 4.5bn barrels so far, which provided us with $130bn. We've consumed half our oil and we have about half left. But while it has developed our infrastructure, we have not developed [as a country], or gained full advantage from it. Oil has brought us conflict and [billions of dollars of] environmental destruction; we are transforming the Amazon into a country where climate fluctuations will be terrible. Oil has not solved the problems. We must have a less extractive economy.
"What we need to do in the medium to long-term is overcome this economic model of accumulation. We need another way to organise the economy, which is not so dependent on the exploitation of natural resources. We need to move from an extractive economic model, to one based in the knowledge, and forces, and needs of human beings, individual and collective. We also need another way of inserting ourselves into the world market that is more intelligent than simply providing raw materials.
"In reality, we've been living off the rent of nature. In the last few decades, since the 1970s, Ecuador has had as its principal source of revenue the exploitation of oil – the extraction of crude oil and the export of oil into the international market. Ecuador needs to break with the extreme concentration of assets and income, and change the pattern. We need to achieve equality if there is to be justice and freedom.
"I could see the [oil] monster from the inside. Ecuador is the producer of flowers, oil and bananas but it has never developed. Perhaps we are poor because of our resources. We should be an intelligent country. We cannot live without nature but nature can live without us. We must change our model of life. What about [Yasuni becoming] a sanctuary for nature, for humanity?"
The race is now on. If Ecuador attracts $100m for Yasuni within the year, the oil will not be extracted. If it does not, then almost certainly President Correa, Acosta's old friend, will almost certainly say that he has no option but to send in a Chinese oil company to extract it. It will be the end of the two uncontacted tribes and a vast swathe of the most diverse forest in the world.
Above all, however, it will be a tragedy for the world because the only country which has had the chance to reject the extractive development path and demonstrate what is possible, will have blown it.
Ecuador signs $3.6bn deal not to exploit oil-rich Amazon reserve
Pioneering deal signed with UN sets up trust fund by wealthy countries worth half expected earnings from potential sale of oil
by John Vidal and Rory Carroll
How much would you pay for the most biologically rich patch of land on Earth – some 675 sq miles of pristine Amazon, home to several barely contacted indigenous tribes, thousands of species of trees and nearly 1bn barrels of crude oil?
Ecuador, home of the Galapagos Islands, the Andes mountain range and vast tracts of oil-rich rainforest, yesterday asked the world for $3.6bn not to exploit the Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha oil block in the Yasuni national park. A knockdown price, it said, considering the oil alone is worth more than $7bn at today's prices. The 407m tonnes of CO2 that would be generated by burning it could sell for over $5bn in the global carbon markets.
But neither the oil block nor the park is for sale, and under the terms of a unique, legally binding trust fund set up yesterday by the government and the UN, the oil and the timber in Yasuni will never be exploited.
Instead, donor countries, philanthropists and individuals around the world are being invited to pay the money in return for a non-exploitation guarantee.
The idea of rich countries paying poor countries not to exploit their forests in return for financial compensation is being promoted at the global climate talks which reconvened this week in Bonn, Germany. But the idea of paying poor countries not to develop valuable oil reserves is believed to be the most radical and most forward-looking yet.
"The object is to preserve biodiversity and prevent climate change emissions. Ecuador is an oil-exporting country and the oil reserves in Yasuni have been shown to represent 20% of the oil in the whole country," said Helga Serrano, from the Ecuadorean foreign ministry yesterday in Bonn. "We will keep then oil underground indefinitely. We think $3.6bn is a fair contribution from developed countries," she said.
So far, only European countries have shown a firm interest. Germany has said it may pay $800m over 13 years, with Spain, France and Switzerland reportedly considering the offer. Guatemala and Nigeria have asked Ecuador for help with similar programmes.
The plan was first floated by the Ecuadorian government in 2007 when it asked for $350m (£174m) a year to leave Yusuni park oil in the ground, but commitment from the international community has been slow in coming.
Any money raised would be administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and would go to protect 4.8m hectares of land in Ecuador's other national parks – including the Galapagos Islands – and to develop renewable energy sources and build schools and hospitals for indigenous groups.
Conservation groups have been staggered by the biological riches in the park, which is situated at the intersection of the Amazon, the Andes and the equator. It was recently found to have 650 species of tree and shrub within a single hectare – the highest number in the world and more than in the whole of north America. In addition, it has more than 20 threatened mammal species, including, jaguars, otters and monkeys, and several hundred bird species.
The rush for oil in the Amazon has long divided governments and people. Ecuador is fighting a massive battle to get US oil companies to clean up pollution, while indigenous groups have clashed with government forces and companies in neighbouring Peru and Colombia.
Yesterday human rights groups criticised the Ecuadorean government for using the conservation initiative to mask plans to open up other parts of the Amazon to oil development, and to re-open old oil blocks that had been closed because of resistance by indigenous people.
But conservation groups hailed the establishment of the UN trust fund for Yasuni as "historic".
"We welcome this long sought after final step to protect an important part of Yasuni national park," said Kevin Koenig, Ecuador coordinator withAmazon Watch. "This is a big win for Ecuador, and the world. Now we need more countries to contribute, and for [Ecuadorian] President Correa to keep his word."
"We are seeking nothing less than a new paradigm for development. This is what the majority of people in Ecuador want. Yasuni will remain protected through generations," said Daniel Ortega, an environment and climate change ministry spokesman.
But some environmental and indigenous groups cautioned that the deal covered only the eastern fringe of the Yasuni national park and left the rest open to oil and mining projects.
Repsol and the Chinese-owned Andes Petroleum extract oil in the west of the park and last month Ecuador's government said it would tender oil blocks in Pastaza province in the south.
The CONAIE umbrella indigenous organisation warned that the UN-brokered deal was not the end of the fight. "We don't want Correa to offset his lost income from leaving the ITT oil in the ground by opening up other areas of equally pristine indigenous lands," the group's leader, Marlon Santi, told reporters.
Sceptics questioned Ecuador's green credentials given it planned a major new oil refinery and spent billions every year importing and subsidising gasoline and diesel.
