Chevron-Ecuador Lawsuit: $9.5 Billion Judgment and Arbitration

The Chevron Ecuador lawsuit is a decades-long fight over oil contamination in the northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon that produced a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in 2011, which U.S. courts and an international arbitration tribunal have since found was obtained through fraud. More than thirty years after the case was first filed, Chevron has paid nothing to the affected communities, the judgment remains uncollected in every country where the plaintiffs have tried to enforce it, and Ecuador itself has now been ordered to pay Chevron more than $220 million in related arbitration awards.

What Texaco Left Behind in the Amazon

Texaco drilled for oil in Ecuador’s Oriente region from 1964 to 1992, operating in a consortium with the state oil company, Petroecuador. Plaintiffs allege the company dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into rivers and streams and spilled roughly 17 million gallons of crude across about 4,400 square kilometers around Lago Agrio. Texaco also left behind more than 900 unlined open waste pits that continued leaching into soil and groundwater long after operations ended.1BBC News. Chevron Ecuador: The Obscure Legal Battle2ChevronToxico.com. The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador

Roughly 30,000 indigenous people and rural farmers were affected. Communities in the region have reported elevated rates of cancer, birth defects, and miscarriages, which residents attribute to chronic petroleum exposure.1BBC News. Chevron Ecuador: The Obscure Legal Battle Chevron inherited the dispute when it acquired Texaco in a 2001 merger.

How the $9.5 Billion Judgment Came About

Ecuadorian residents first filed a class action, Aguinda v. Texaco, in federal court in New York in 1993. Texaco pushed to move the case to Ecuador, and in 2002 a U.S. court dismissed it on the condition that Texaco submit to Ecuadorian jurisdiction and waive statute-of-limitations defenses.3Stanford Law School. Kimerling, Oil, Contact, and Conservation in the Amazon In May 2003, the plaintiffs refiled in Lago Agrio, this time against ChevronTexaco.2ChevronToxico.com. The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador

On February 14, 2011, the Provincial Court of Sucumbíos found Chevron liable and ordered it to pay $18.2 billion for environmental remediation, healthcare, and clean water.4Stanford Law School. Gomez, The Lago Agrio Case A 2013 appellate ruling cut the award to $9.5 billion by rejecting the punitive damages portion, and Ecuador’s highest court upheld that figure.2ChevronToxico.com. The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador Chevron had already pulled its assets from Ecuador and refused to pay.

Why Chevron Refuses to Pay

Chevron’s defense rests on two things: a 1990s cleanup agreement and a set of fraud findings against the plaintiffs’ legal team.

After Texaco transferred operations to Petroecuador in 1992, its subsidiary spent $40 million on remediation work between 1995 and 1998, closing 161 well pits and plugging 18 wells among other measures. In September 1998, the Ecuadorian government signed a “Final Act” releasing Texaco from further environmental liabilities.5Chevron Corporation. Inspection of Environmental Experts Confirms Texaco Conducted Remediation Chevron says that release ended its exposure and that Petroecuador is responsible for what came after 1992.6Chevron Corporation. Ecuador Lawsuit Plaintiffs counter that the release covered only government claims, not the private claims of community members.2ChevronToxico.com. The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador Independent reporting has found Petroecuador responsible for 96.5% of Ecuadorian oil spills in 2021–2022, and about half of all recorded contamination sites nationwide remain unremediated.7Mongabay. Abandoned Oil Mess Still Plagues Communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The more damaging blow to the plaintiffs came from a civil racketeering suit Chevron filed in 2011 in the Southern District of New York against Steven Donziger, the lead American attorney for the Ecuadorians. On March 4, 2014, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the $9.5 billion judgment was the product of fraud and racketeering. Kaplan found that Donziger and his team had ghostwritten the Ecuadorian court’s judgment, promised a $500,000 bribe to the presiding judge, fabricated environmental evidence, and pressured scientific experts to falsify reports.8Chevron Corporation. U.S. Court Declares Ecuador Judgment Against Chevron Corporation Fraudulent, Unenforceable In August 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed, describing the plaintiffs’ legal team’s conduct as a “parade of corrupt actions” and holding that later Ecuadorian appellate rulings did not cure the fraud at the trial level.9Harvard Law Review. Chevron Corp. v. Donziger

What Happened to Steven Donziger

The RICO ruling barred Donziger and his associates from enforcing the Ecuadorian judgment in the United States. When Donziger refused to turn over his electronic devices as ordered during the proceedings, Kaplan held him in criminal contempt. After the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, Kaplan appointed private attorneys to serve as prosecutors, one of whom was affiliated with a firm that had previously done work for Chevron.10Glavin PLLC. Donziger Found Guilty of Contempt by Judge

Donziger spent more than 900 days under house arrest before trial. On July 26, 2021, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska convicted him on all six contempt counts and sentenced him to six months in prison, the maximum for the charges.10Glavin PLLC. Donziger Found Guilty of Contempt by Judge The Second Circuit affirmed in 2022, and in March 2023 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, with Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh dissenting from that denial.11Supreme Court of the United States. Donziger v. United States, No. 22-274 A New York appellate court disbarred him in 2020 based on Kaplan’s bribery findings.12Supreme Court of the United States. Matter of Donziger, Disciplinary Proceedings

The prosecution drew international pushback. In September 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Donziger’s detention was “arbitrary” and appeared to be “in retaliation for his work as a legal representative of Indigenous communities in Ecuador.”13Amnesty International USA. Urgent Action: Environmental Lawyer Arbitrarily Detained More than 30 U.S. senators and 68 Nobel laureates supported a pardon campaign that was not acted on before President Biden left office in January 2025. Donziger remains disbarred, and the court still holds his passport.14Amnesty International. Biden Should Pardon Steven Donziger Before Leaving Office

The Arbitration That Turned the Tables

While the U.S. cases were unfolding, Chevron pursued Ecuador directly under the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty, filing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2009.15Permanent Court of Arbitration. Chevron Corporation and Texaco Petroleum Company v. The Republic of Ecuador, PCA Case No. 2009-23 On August 30, 2018, the tribunal found the Lago Agrio judgment had been “corruptly ghostwritten” for the Ecuadorian judge in exchange for a promised bribe and ruled that Ecuador had committed a “denial of justice” under international law. It ordered Ecuador to strip the judgment of enforceability and to preclude the plaintiffs from collecting on it anywhere in the world.16EJIL: Talk! From Indigenous Peoples’ Environmental Catastrophe in the Amazon to Investors’ Dispute on Denial of Justice

On November 17, 2025, the tribunal issued its Track III ruling, ordering Ecuador to pay Chevron $220,806,942, primarily for legal fees Chevron incurred defending itself worldwide. Chevron had sought roughly $793 million in legal fees alone and total claims exceeding $3.35 billion; the tribunal awarded only 15% of the $323 million Chevron claimed for its RICO litigation costs.17IISD Investment Treaty News. Chevron to Collect Over USD 200 Million in Decade-Old Arbitration Combined with an earlier $112 million payment for a separate denial-of-justice claim and $50 million in defense costs, the total ordered against Ecuador approaches $400 million.18Amazon Watch. Ecuador’s Government Celebrates Its Defeat in Chevron Arbitration

Why the Judgment Has Not Been Collected Anywhere

Chevron holds no assets in Ecuador, so the plaintiffs tried to enforce the $9.5 billion judgment in countries where the company operates. Each effort has failed.

Where Things Stand in 2026

The government of President Daniel Noboa has said it intends to pay the $220 million arbitration award, with the Attorney General’s office describing the outcome as a relative success against Chevron’s larger demands.21Nation of Change. Ecuador Agrees to Pay Chevron After Tribunal Ruling That decision runs against a 2024 referendum in which 64.8% of Ecuadorian voters rejected expanded participation in international arbitration mechanisms.22Amazon Watch. Amazon Watch Responds to Reports That Ecuador Told to Pay $220 Million to Chevron

The Union of Peoples Affected by Chevron-Texaco (UDAPT), which represents six indigenous nations and 80 communities, has petitioned a Sucumbíos judge to seize the $220 million before it reaches Chevron. UDAPT maintains that the arbitration ruling does not affect the enforceability of the original $9.5 billion judgment, which Ecuador’s Constitutional Court separately affirmed. The petition was pending as of late 2025. The plaintiffs have also filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, arguing that the affected communities’ human rights must prevail over the corporate interests in the arbitration.18Amazon Watch. Ecuador’s Government Celebrates Its Defeat in Chevron Arbitration

The contamination in the Oriente persists. Ongoing oil spills and unremediated waste pits continue to affect the region’s water, soil, and residents, more than three decades after the first lawsuit was filed and with none of the $9.5 billion judgment collected.7Mongabay. Abandoned Oil Mess Still Plagues Communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon