19 Jun 2006

Chevron Finds that Plaintiffs' Report on Sacha 14 Fails to Recognize Petroecuador's Responsibility and Ignores Scientific Evidence

QUITO, Ecuador, June 19, 2006 -Chevron has formally notified the Superior Court in Nueva Loja that plaintiffs' expert report for the Sacha 14 well site contains no credible scientific evidence which validates the plaintiffs' claims that there are health risks at the site -- in fact, no harmful levels of petroleum related chemicals were found at the site and data prove past Texpet operations pose no threat to human health.

Some specific points in the rebuttal include:

  • Sacha 14 has been operated by Petroecuador for the past 15 years and there have been recent documented spills at the site. Sacha 14 was not included in the 1995 remediation agreement, and as such, it became the responsibility of Petroecuador. For these reasons, Sacha 14 is solely and exclusively Petroecuador's responsibility.
  • The plaintiffs' expert report provides no basis for suggesting that the conditions at the site represent a health risk. If the plaintiffs' expert had performed an appropriate health risk evaluation, it would have revealed that the degraded petroleum does not represent a health risk, and that the metals are present in concentrations that reflect background concentrations, and/or are below health protective levels.
  • Contrary to plaintiffs' experts assertions that drinking water is contaminated, analytical results from drinking water well samples taken by plaintiffs' experts indicates that groundwater is free of petroleum hydrocarbons. The real health risk in the drinking water identified by another of the experts appointed by the Court is due to the presence of coliform bacteria, which are not related to petroleum activities.

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