Chevron ‘Permanent’ Ban Sought by Brazil Prosecutor on Spill
December 19, 2011, 10:02 AM ESTBy Rodrigo Orihuela and Peter Millard
(Updates with closing share prices in ninth paragraph.)
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Brazilian prosecutor who filed a lawsuit against Chevron Corp. and Transocean Ltd. said he’s seeking a “permanent” ban on the companies’ operations in the South American nation after an oil spill last month.
There is no timeline yet for a possible ruling in the lawsuit that has been assigned to a federal judge, Eduardo Santos, the federal prosecutor in Campos, in Rio de Janeiro state, told reporters today. Santos, who is suing Chevron and Transocean for 20 billion reais ($10.8 billion), said previous fines against other companies in the millions of reais haven’t prevented such accidents.
“Brazil has to change the paradigm from millions to billions,” Santos said
The case imperils Brazil’s plan to boost crude output because Transocean operates 10 out of the 61 rigs working in the country and it would be hard to replace them in a tight market for oil equipment, said Judson Bailey, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. Brazilian oil production growth slowed after the country increased safety requirements following last year’s spill at BP Plc’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.
‘Tight’ Market
“The rig market is pretty tight, so if Transocean were banned, the oil companies wouldn’t be happy at all,” Bailey said in a telephone interview from Houston. “Chevron and Petrobras can’t get a rig elsewhere, so it messes with the state-owned oil company,” he said, referring to Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras.
Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, and Transocean, based in Vernier, Switzerland, said yesterday they haven’t been notified of legal action and are cooperating with authorities.
Scott Walker, a Chevron spokesman, didn’t return calls seeking comments today.
Chevron, Brazil’s third-largest producer behind Petrobras and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, will see production wane in the South American country until the government lets it drill again, said Cleveland Jones, an oil specialist and professor at Rio de Janeiro State University.
Chevron fell 0.9 percent to $99.67 at the close in New York. Transocean declined 1.9 percent to $39.41.
Macondo Blowout
Chevron has come under increased scrutiny in Brazil after 3,000 barrels of oil leaked last month from an oil field in deep waters of the Campos Basin. The company underestimated the amount of pressure at an oil deposit it was exploring, and crude leaked from the reservoir for about eight days, George Buck, the head of Chevron for Brazil, said on Nov. 20.
BP has booked more than $40 billion in losses related to the April 2010 blowout of the Macondo well in the Gulf. The accident killed 11 workers aboard Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon well and spilled 4.9 million barrels of crude. That’s about $8,163 per barrel spilled, compared with $3.57 million per barrel if the Brazilian fine were to hold.
“Ultimately this is an opening shot, Chevron’s attorneys are probably not at all fazed by this,” said Jones. “The prosecutor’s office will be a positive development for Chevron, because they will ensure that the letter of the law is followed and the letter of the law is reasonable.”
Chevron said yesterday that it “responded responsibly to the incident at its Frade Field and has dealt transparently with all Brazilian authorities.” Guy Cantwell, a Transocean spokesman, said the company’s rigs are operating in Brazilian waters and the company continues to cooperate with the government.
Criminal Lawsuit
Chevron holds a 51.74 percent stake in Frade. Petrobras holds a 30 percent stake, and Frade Japao Petroleo Ltda., a joint venture including Inpex Corp. and Sojitz Corp, holds 18.26 percent. The Frade Field is about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Rio de Janeiro and produced 76,000 barrels a day of oil and natural gas in October.
In the next few weeks, prosecutors will probably file a criminal lawsuit against Chevron for alleged environmental crime, said Romulo Sampaio, a law professor at Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation.
“In this case, everything conspires against the company: it’s a foreign company, drilling for oil in Brazilian waters,” Sampaio, who coordinates the university’s Environmental Law program, said in a telephone interview. “That may bring about emotional responses.”
Prosecutors’ track record in lawsuits against companies involving environmental issues has been mixed. Federal prosecutors twice this year sought to halt construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon, and on both occasions federal judges ruled that the project should proceed.
Amazon Destruction
Federal prosecutors in 2009 convinced Brazilian cattle ranchers in Para, the state that has lost the most forestland to illegal logging, to halt Amazon forest destruction to avoid an international ban on meat.
Brazil’s five largest meatpackers -- JBS SA, the world’s largest beef producer, Marfrig Alimentos SA, Bertin SA, Minerva SA and Frigol Comercial Ltda. -- agreed to stop buying cattle from suppliers that contributed to stripping the Amazon forest.
A lawsuit against Alcoa Inc. is pending after six years. Federal and state prosecutors sued Alcoa’s Brazilian mining subsidiary in 2005 to block construction of the Juruti bauxite mine, saying the company had circumvented the law by not applying for a federal permit and instead seeking a license from the state of Para.
--With assistance from Bradley Olson in Houston and Adriana Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro. Editors: Robin Saponar, Jasmina Kelemen
To contact the reporters on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Rio de Janeiro at rorihuela@bloomberg.net; Peter Millard in Rio de Janeiro at pmillard1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Carlos Caminada at ccaminada1@bloomberg.net
