08 Nov 2004

Court to Inspect First Wellsite in Which PetroEcuador Has Not Completed Its Environmental Cleanup Responsibility

Judge to Visit Sacha-57 on Thursday

NUEVA LOJA, Ecuador, November 08, 2004 - Nueva Loja Superior Court President Efraín Novillo will resume judicial site inspections tomorrow at Sacha-13 - an active PetroEcuador oilfield that was never designated for environmental cleanup by Texaco Petroleum Company (Texpet) in its 1995 agreement with the government of Ecuador, and thus should have been cleaned by PetroEcuador, ChevronTexaco announced today. Afterwards, the judge will complete the week's second inspection at the Sacha-57 wellsite. The inspections are taking place in connection with an environmental lawsuit filed against the company, with the objective of determining the quality of the $40 million remediation effort conducted by Texpet.

Ricardo Reis Veiga, vice president general counsel, Latin America Products for ChevronTexaco, said, "We find it disturbing that plaintiffs' attorneys have a long history of blaming ChevronTexaco for everything, while conveniently ignoring the fact that PetroEcuador has neglected its remediation responsibilities, and has a well-documented history of poor environmental performance in the 14 years it has operated these oil fields. Plaintiffs' request to inspect SA-13 - a site that was never designated for cleanup by Texpet but which should have been remediated by PetroEcuador - symbolizes their determination to point the finger at Texpet no matter what, and turn a blind eye towards the party truly responsible."

Background information about the sites:

Sacha 13
  • The Sacha-13 oilfield is one of many sites not designated for cleanup by Texpet as established by the agreement it signed with the Government of Ecuador on May 4, 1995.
  • The environmental conditions of Sacha-13 are the sole responsibility of Petroecuador, consistent with its majority share in the former consortium.
  • To this date, PetroEcuador has yet to offer a full accounting of its fulfillment of that cleanup responsibility -either for Sacha-13 or elsewhere in the Oriente.
  • In addition to its failure to remediate the site, PetroEcuador conducted workovers on SA-13 after Texpet ceased its operatorship These workovers, which may have caused environmental impact to the site for which Texpet would have no responsibility, took place on the following dates: 1/25/1993; 4/17/1993; 4/19/1993; 1/30/2000; 1/2/2002; 10/4/2003; 10/4/2003; 10/4/2003.
Sacha 57
  • Sacha-57 was one of the wellsites that was plugged and abandoned by Texpet in 1996 as part of the remediation program signed on May 4, 1995.
  • In this site, TexPet remediated three pits and an area of affected soil around the wellhead.
  • The government of Ecuador officially certified that Texpet properly remediated Sacha-57 and released TexPet of further responsibility in Actas 11, 12, 14 and 16.

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