Panel reinforces Ecuador award halt in Chevron case
Feb 17 (Reuters) - An arbitration panel reinforced an order that Ecuador's government seek to suspend an $18 billion court award against U.S. oil company Chevron Corp over pollution in the South American country's rainforest.
A year after its original order, the three-person panel, working under The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration, told the Republic of Ecuador on Thursday to "take all measures necessary" through its judicial, legislative or executive branches to suspend enforcement of the award at home and abroad.
It is the latest sign that the landmark litigation, which has run almost two decades, could go on for years longer as it works it way through legal channels outside the country where the pollution occurred.
Chevron has also appealed last February's ruling against it to Ecuador's top court. The California company inherited the case with its 2001 takeover of Texaco, which left Ecuador nine years earlier after three decades in the country.
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/02_-_February/Panel_reinforces_Ecuador_award_halt_in_Chevron_case/