On the same day that Peru declares a State of Emergency over oil pollution in the Amazon, the Ecuadorians offer 3 million hectares of pristine forest to the Chinese to explore for oil.
Amazon
“We have protected these lands with our hearts, soul and lives”
Locals in Ecuador are fighting PetroAmazonas to explore close to the ecologically and culturally sensitive Yasuni national park.
Appeal Court Upholds Chevron Guilty Verdict
Chevron has been found guilty again. Yesterday, an Ecuadorian appeals court upheld a ruling that the oil giant should pay US$18 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon. It was last February that a local judge had ordered Chevron to pay US$8.6 billion in damages, but the amount was doubled to US$18 billion because Chevron … Read More
Chevron Guilty: Clean Up the Amazon!
Last week it was Shell’s AGM and its turn to face the wrath of shareholders and activists for its appalling environmental record. This week its Chevron’s turn with its AGM tomorrow. Protests kicked off in dramatic style yesterday, when activists from Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network rappelled from the Richmond Bridge in the San … Read More
Chevron Guilty
In an historic victory, a small court in Lago Agrio, in Ecuador’s Amazon has ordered that Chevron pay some $8.6 billion in damages. The court ruled in favour of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon who have spent the last 18 years seeking damages for systematic and chronic oil pollution. Chevron inherited the suit when … Read More
The “world’s worst oil-related disaster”
In many ways it has been a lengthy legal fight like no other. On the one side are tens of thousands of poor Ecuadorian Indians and on the other the raw might of American Big Oil, in the shape of Texaco and then Chevron. In the middle is a chronically polluted Amazon and the lega … Read More
Secret Recordings Reveal Chevron “Cooked” Trial Evidence
As the 17 year old lawsuit between oil giant Chevron and the Ecuadorian Indians draws to a close, the plaintiffs are arguing that they have uncovered damning new evidence that could seriously undermine the oil company’s legal case. Texaco drilled for oil in Ecuador from 1964 to 1992, working in partnership with the state-run company … Read More
In Peru, It’s All About The Oil
As Lima prepares to receive over 60 heads of state for the EU/LAC Summit to discuss poverty, sustainable development, climate change and energy, a grand drama of indigenous people versus oil is playing out in Peru’s vast Amazon region, 70% of which is now concessioned to oil companies. Here at the Escuela Senen Soi in … Read More
Ecuador Repairs Ruptured Pipeline
Ecuador is reopening its main oil pipeline, three days after a landslide ruptured an 80-meter (262-foot) section of the duct, spilling thousands of barrels of oil into the local environment. The ecological fallout from the 4,000 barrel spill in a mountainous region 25 miles east of Ecuador‘s capital, Quito, is “grave,” as many tributaries for … Read More
China Seeks Arbitration in Ecuador Oil Row
Ecuador is the latest oil-producing country to try and renegotiate the terms and conditions over contracts, this time trying to impose a windfall tax on Chinese companies in the country. However the Chinese state oil firms are seeking international arbitration to try to overturn the move, arguing it threatens millions of dollars of investment in … Read More