06 Jul 2006

Chevron Criticizes Attempts by Plaintiffs Attorneys to Undermine the Judicial Process

Quito, July 6, 2006- Chevron Corporation, the defendant in an ongoing environmental lawsuit in Ecuador, today issued the following statement on recent attempts by the plaintiffs' attorneys to cancel the judicial inspections of the former Petroecuador/Texaco Petroleum Consortium oil field sites, which are part of the court-ordered evidence production process:

"The recent efforts by plaintiffs' attorneys to restrict the judicial inspection process is another attempt to prevent the court from receiving additional evidence that they must fear will prove that their claims against Chevron are baseless and without merit.

"The overwhelming body of evidence that has been presented to the court to date has shown that the people of the Oriente region face no significant oil-related health risks from the sites remediated by Texaco Petroleum Company. Plaintiffs have been unable to prove their claims, and it appears that they now realize that the continuation of the judicial inspection process will only further weaken their position.

"Furthermore, their allegations that Chevron is causing delays in the trial could not be further from the truth. In fact, it has been the plaintiffs' attorneys who are continuing to cause unnecessary delays.

"As an example, on June 15, 2006, the plaintiffs' attorneys petitioned the Court to cancel five of the judicial inspections ordered by the Court for June and July, because they claim that they were not technically prepared. However, we find it hard to understand how the plaintiffs' attorneys could not be prepared, since they were the ones who requested in 2003 those judicial inspections to be conducted in the first place, supposedly because they had technical information from those sites which would prove their allegations. While the Court agreed to postpone these inspections, it refused to cancel them, despite plaintiffs' attorneys repeated efforts to force a cancellation. Plaintiffs' attorneys went as far as to organize a demonstration inside the court house in Lago Agrio on June 14 in an attempt to pressure the judge to accept their petition. The Court once again, on June 29, 2006, issued an order denying Plaintiffs' request for such cancellation, and ratified its previous ruling that all judicial inspections ordered as per the record ought to be conducted.

"The attempts by the plaintiffs' attorneys to reduce or withdraw from the judicial inspection process after requesting close to 100 such judicial inspections is not only against the law, but a clear demonstration of how they intend to manipulate the process by exercising pressure on the Court to rule on the basis of unsupported inferences instead of legitimate evidence and sound scientific data.

"At the same time as they consistently request the Court to reduce the evidence production in the process, they attempt to deceive the public by suggesting the opposite. For instance, in their February 23, 2006 letter to the International Commission of Jurists, the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote, "It is of great importance that the inspection of San Carlos and all the future inspections continue as they are scheduled and with the highest principals of justice and impartiality."

"Moreover, the plaintiffs' attorneys have obstructed justice by repeatedly preventing an Ecuadorian judge from inspecting the laboratory used by their nominated experts to analyze soil and water samples. That inspection was requested by Chevron and ordered by the Court to determine whether that lab is accredited and qualified to carry out the Court ordered analysis of water and soil samples collected during the judicial inspections.

"Chevron is entitled to a fair trial under the Constitution of Ecuador, and in our view any effort to undermine the legal process by the plaintiffs' attorneys ought to be considered a denial of justice."

The following are highlights from the judicial inspections reports submitted by Chevron's nominated experts:

  • 99% of all soil samples collected from areas previously remediated by Texpet confirm that the remediation was effective and complied with the closure requirements set by the Government of Ecuador and Petroecuador.
  • 99% of all drinking water tested during the inspections is free of harmful levels of petroleum related chemicals.
  • 97% of the same drinking water samples contained non-petroleum related microbial contamination that could present a risk to the health of people consuming the water.
  • The inspections have revealed a pattern of environmental neglect by Petroecuador, which has exclusively owned and run the oil fields for more than 14 years.

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