Criticism of Chevron

Chevron Corporation has been one of the most widely-criticized companies in the world, generally stemming from its activities and their relation to climate change. Chevron's most widely-known scandal involves Texaco's activities in Ecuador's Lago Agrio oil field, which Chevron is deemed responsible for due to its acquisition of Texaco in 2001. Chevron has been most widely criticized for its handling of litigation against it filed by residents of the Lago Agrio region, which included the extensive persecution of Lago Agrio lawyer Steven Donziger, who spent 45 days in jail out of a 6 month sentence and 993 days under house arrest.

Climate change activists have also held an Anti Chevron Day since 2013, which is held on or around May 21 of every year to coincide with the general period of time that Chevron holds its annual meeting of shareholders.

Lago Agrio activities

Texaco and Gulf Oil began operating in the Oriente region of Ecuador in 1964 as a consortium. Texaco operated the Lago Agrio oil field from 1967 to 1992 and the Ecuador state oil company continued to operate the same oil fields after Texaco left. In 1993, Texaco was found responsible for dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste and they spent $40m cleaning up the area during the 1990s. In 1998, the Ecuadorean government signed an agreement with Texaco accepting the clean-up as complete and absolving Texaco of any further responsibility. That same year, an Ecuadorean scientific team took water and soil samples after Texaco left and found petroleum hydrocarbons at unsafe levels in almost half. The clean up was called "a sham" by critics.