Chevron accused of ‘environmental crime’ in Brazil

Chevron accused of ‘environmental crime’ in Brazil


Chevron and Transocean and 17 executives stand accused of crimes
related to an oil spill last year.


By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 20:11 EDT
The Raw Story

RIO DE JANEIRO — Federal prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday accused US oil giant Chevron and 17 executives of “environmental crime” in connection with a major spill off southeastern Brazil last November.

The country’s national oil regulator estimates that 2,400 barrels of crude were spilled in the accident, which led authorities to suspend all of Chevron’s drilling operations and to deny the company access to huge new offshore fields.

The US firm rejected Wednesday’s charges as “outrageous and without merit” and vowed to defend itself and its employees.

The prosecutors said in a statement that it was charging “Chevron, oil drilling contractor Transocean and 17 executives with environmental crime and damage in connection with the oil spill.” ...

Guilty or Innocent ?


Details in the article.

Holy crap, it's almost like the Brazilian Government has a whole lot more integrity than the US Government!

Respect to Brazil for expecting industry to be responsible for their actions.

“If (foreign) firms have the best technology, take all the precautions, they will be welcome, if not they won’t be,” he told reporters.

reply to post by TinkerHaus


Absolutely. I don't have words for my contempt for our government's handling of BP.

The technology is fairly well established to conduct safe off shore drilling as long as it is not too deep. Something went wrong and for the board to be charged and it does appear like a management decision is at least partly responsible. Without getting into all of the evidence it is hard to be sure of what when wrong, something did though.