Steve Donziger Wants Billions From Chevron Not For Ecuador

Steve Donziger Wants Billions From Chevron Not For Ecuador

Steve Donziger, the lawyer representing Ecuador against Chevron in a $16 billion lawsuit, where Chevron is not the actual party at fault, stands to gain over $5 billion, making him one of the richest people in the World -- if he wins.

If the truth prevails, the company Donziger should be suing is Petroecuador, owned by the Country of Ecuador. That firm has been responsible for explosions and oil spills since 1990. If Donziger wins, Petroecudor litterally gets away with murder.

..More to come.

Chevron Pipelines Attacked In Nigeria and Columbia; FARC May Be Responsible In Columbia

In the ongoing matter of Chevron and Nigeria comes a report from UPI declaring that "Nigeria attack cripples Chevron". Moreover, the same report points a finger at militant groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). And while there's no recorded link between MEND and Chevron accuser Larry Bowoto, it seems the two have similar aims: to cripple Chevron's presence in the region, as well as that of Royal Dutch Shell.

Consider this UPI report:

Chevron Corp. has declared a force majeure on its oil exports following a particularly destructive attack on one of its installations in the Niger Delta.
Officials at the U.S. oil company said that though production was unaffected at offshore installations, Chevron could not meet its production quotas for customers because of shortfalls caused by the pipeline attack last week at the Escravos oil field in the delta.

Though Chevron would not say just how much production was lost due to the attack, Nigerian energy officials estimated the losses at over 100,000 barrels per day, a blow that prompted the company to declare force majeure, relieving them of their contractual obligations until the assaulted pipeline can be repaired and secured.

Chevron, meanwhile, is not the only company reeling from the recent increase in violence against foreign oil interests by armed militant groups in the delta. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS-A), the leading foreign petroleum company operating in Nigeria, suffered yet another in a long list of attacks at its Bonga facility last week, prompting the Anglo-Dutch company to halt production for several days.

It wasn't the first time Shell was forced to scale back production due to militant violence. In January, Shell shut down operations at its Forcados terminal following pipeline attacks that threw its 100,000 barrel-per-day production offline. The terminal already had been shut once before because of violence and reopened in October 2007 after more than a year of halted production. Since its reopening, the facility, which can produce some 450,000 barrels per day, had been operating at a fraction of its capacity.

FARC May Be Behind Anti-Chevron Ecuador Efforts

It seem that MEND has something in common with FARC, the same organization that kidnapped now freed politician Ingrid Betancourt: both have apparently bombed Chevron pipelines. in FARK's case, such an activity has been ongoing since 2001, but not limited to Chevron at that time; Petroecuador pipelines -- Petroecuador has long been a partner to Chevron in the region -- were the targets of that Columbian rebel group and that continues today.

Since Ecuador's charging that Columbia's using U.S. made weapons, it seems that Chevron's made as the scapegoat, when it provides much needed employment to the region as is true in Nigeria.

Chevron v. Larry Bowoto - Nigerian Accuser In Court To Explain Why Half Of Case Was Dropped

Larry Bowoto, the Nigerian Accuser who claimed that Chevron hired people who then shot him and violated his human rights, is the focus of a court hearing that starts today according to the SF Sentinel, and which seeks to learn why Bowoto dropped half the charges that he brought before Chevron.

Chevron has claimed that Bowoto and more than 100 members of his paramilitary group stormed the Parabe oil platform, 9 miles off the Nigerian coast and held its employees hostage until Nigerian police and military intervened and helped save the Chevron Nigeria employees.

It reads like another version of the Ecuador Shakedown. I am getting updates on this via the Internet so visit this blog for more news on this investigation.

Ecuador's Oil Power Grab: Suing Chevron; Taking Over US Oil Company Production

The Chevron / Ecuador scandal is more complex after all.

The Government of Ecuador's on a mission to take over and run energy production previously owned by American Companies. And where it can't do that, it files a lawsuit of it's own against Chevron for an oil spill that's the fault of PetroEcuador, the state-owned oil company.

The latest news came this weekend, when President Rafael Correa made an offer to buy out companies that did not want to do business with the country in it's original deal to slash winfall profits to just one percent. Now, Correa says he's willing to give up to a 30 percent profit if those companies drop their lawsuits.

But that's not the real news for companies like Occidental Petroleum, based in America. Because of a long-running dispute, Ecuador took over Occidental's production and gave it to Petroecuador, the same company that is the real organization to blame for Ecuador's oil-spill problems of the past.

Ecuador's overall strategy is clear. Give winfall profits to non-American oil companies, but sue and punish American oil firms, from Occidental to Chevron, and make PetroEcuador richer in the process. The Government is playing two sides of the coin: trying to increase oil production, but keep the tribes, who are anti-American, appeased in the process.

Chevron Ecuador Scandal - Claims That Chevron Polluted Ecuador Not True

There's a little war going on regarding Internet-based claims that Chevron was responsible for oil spills in Ecuador.

If one types "Chevron Ecuador" there's a littany of results that point the finger at the oil giant but without solid evidence. Moreover, it seem the people on the anti-Chevron side have launched an effort to block information that would protect Chevron from false claims.

But the fact is that Chevron did not spill oil in Ecuador. The State-Owned oil company Petroecuador did. But Ecuador itself, not a rich country, and influnced by Venezualan President Chavez, has launched a full-scale legal and PR assault on Chevron mainly because Texaco, which Chevron now owns, was partnered with Petroecuador.

Texaco had long ago taken steps to clean up it's matters in this issue, but Ecuador has not.

Look, I'm not a fan of big companies just because they're large, or small firms for the opposite reasons. But I do support telling the truth, and Petroecuador has not been forthcoming in this at all.

More soon.