Brazil Judge Transfers 2nd Chevron Oil Spill Lawsuit To Rio Court
4:34p ET April 13, 2012 (Dow Jones)


RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)--A federal judge in Brazil transferred a second civil lawsuit against U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. (CVX) for the company's role in an offshore oil spill to a Rio de Janeiro court, according to court documents obtained Friday.
In a decision dated Tuesday, Judge Tiago Pereira Macaciel ruled that the 20 billion Brazilian reais ($10.9 billion) civil action be transferred to a Rio de Janeiro federal court from Campos dos Goytacazes, to verify if the case should be linked to a similar action filed late last year by federal prosecutor Eduardo Santos de Oliveira. The lawsuit was filed in March after Chevron reported more oil was seeping from the seabed near its Frade offshore field.
A spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office in Rio de Janeiro said that Oliveira would likely appeal the decision.
The latest decision is another in a string of defeats for Oliveira, who has seen his request for an injunction suspending the local operations of Chevron and rig operator Transocean Ltd. (RIG, RIGN.VX) be denied twice by local judges--the latest on Wednesday. If upheld, the decision would remove Oliveira from both of the civil lawsuits he filed against Chevron's local unit after a drilling accident at the company's Frade offshore oil field caused an estimated 2,400 to 3,000 barrels to leak into the Atlantic Ocean from cracks in the seabed.
In December, Oliveira filed the original BRL20 billion lawsuit against Chevron for the November spill.
"The judge transferred the case to Rio de Janeiro, where the first lawsuit was transferred earlier this year, to verify whether there is a link between the two cases," a spokeswoman for the federal court told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone.
The latest decision doesn't affect the criminal case that Oliveira also filed against Chevron, Transocean and 17 employees. There has been no change in that case, which is currently slated to be heard in Campos, the court spokeswoman said.
Chevron shut down operations at the Frade field last month to better study the geology of the area, which has come under scrutiny because of a series of oil seeps from the seabed. Chevron is lead operator of Frade, which holds estimated recoverable reserves of between 200 million and 300 million barrels of oil equivalent, with a 51.7% stake. Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, holds 30%, while the Frade Japao Petroleo Ltda. consortium has the remaining 18.3% share.

-By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-21-2586-6085; Jeff.Fick@dowjones.com

Earl I have to say that I'm having quite a bit of difficulty trying to follow the gist of the article.

Part of the problem here is that there is not enough data to properly present the legal issues involved in this latest maneuevering - since they are far from clear. Indeed, on the little that has been presented I have to question whether the facts are even being characterized correctly.

GENERALLY, "linking" separate legal matters is seen as a blow to the DEFENSE, because judges only allow these matters to joined into a single trial IF there is some LARGER connection here - and it is hard to see how such a connection could be favorable to Chevron.

The article ALLUDES to the possible removal of the prosecutor on the civil suits, but provides ZERO explanation of why, or what that is all about. Because of the EXTREMELY poor job done in explaining this, I'm not sure whether there IS some "victory" here for Chevron which is not being properly explained OR whether this is just more POSTURING to try to suggest that Chevron is NOT in trouble here...?

I'm going to be nice, and not say a word (on the forum).
"Stunned". What the #*%**#@.

Thank You
Earl



Chevron pays $17M fine for oil spill off Brazil
Chevron pays $17 million fine for last year's oil spill off coast of Brazil's Rio de Janeir

finance.yahoo.com/news/chevron-pays-17m-fine-oil-213005048.html

SAO PAULO (AP) -- Chevron Corp. has paid a multimillion-dollar fine for several "irregularities" in connection with last year's oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's National Petroleum Agency said.

The agency said in a Thursday statement that Chevron paid the 35.1 million real ($17.3 million) fine last week for 24 of 25 irregularities detected. The statement did not provide details on the irregularities.

Some 155,000 gallons of crude are thought to have been released in the November 2011 spill.

The agency said it granted Chevron a 30 percent discount because it paid the fine on time and did not challenge it.

Chevron confirmed it paid the fine and said it will "implement a number of process improvements developed from lessons learned in the incident. Chevron Brasil respects and complies with the laws of the countries in which it operates."

The company said in a Friday statement that "continuous monitoring of the incident area shows no discernible environmental impact to marine life or human health."

Also on Friday, Brazil's state-run oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, said it filed a suit in federal court asking for the suspension of an injunction ordering driller Transocean Ltd. to cease operations in Brasil until investigations into the spill are completed.

The company said in a statement that the suspension would hurt Petrobras' exploration activities since it is currently using seven Transocean rigs in Brazil.

Earlier this week, Transocean and Chevron were served injunctions ordering them to suspend operations in Brazil within 30 days.

Earl, what we see here is another example of the very nasty world created by the Age of the Oligarchs. In relative terms, Brazil's government is a "good guy" in the global community.

At the same time, it's clear-cutting the Amazon (or at least turning its back on illegal logging). And it also craves the wealth which can (supposedly) be generated by developing its off-shore oil reserves. This is DESPITE the fact that Brazil produces massive amounts of cheap, "green" ethanol (i.e. sugar based) to supply much of its own energy needs.

So what we see is Brazil's government infected with the Oligarch's own disease: GREED. And because of that greed, it knows that it must allow ONE of the Oligarchs access to that off-shore oil -- since they are the only entities with BOTH the technological expertise and capital to complete such products.

Thus, if Brazil simply threw Chevron out then it would either have to shut-down development OR invite a different (but equally bad) Oil Oligarch to take its place. Who would be "better" than Chevron? BP? (lol) Exxon? (lol)

We live in (to put it mildly) a very "imperfect world" -- with the end result being that even non-Evil governments are regularly making their own Deals with the Devil...

Jeff,

Thank You, for the realistic perspective.

It's just again, drilling were your not suppose to be, cutting (dangerous) corners to save a buck, contesting just how much leaked. Settled uncontested and with a "discount".

Brazil is very lucky, how the spill flowed. Turtles today, but with a slap on the wrist, Brazil could face a nightmare tomorrow.

One thing I learned from the BP and Cheveron spills (and Shells problems in the Artic), is how much CONTROL, big oil has on the "free press".

Thank You
Earl