A panel of international arbitrators is scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C., this weekend to consider Chevron Corp.'s claim that the state of Ecuador needs to act to prevent indigenous plaintiffs from enforcing a judgment against the oil company worth up to $18 billion.

Last year, a judge in Ecuador ruled that Chevron was liable for up to $18 billion for oil contamination in the eastern part of the country caused by Texaco Petroleum Corp. Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001.

An intermediate appeals court upheld that decision last month (Greenwire, Jan. 4).

The arbitration panel is considering a 2009 claim brought by Chevron against Ecuador in which the oil company claims the Andean nation violated a bilateral trade agreement between it and the United States (Greenwire, June 2, 2011).

Although the panel has not yet decided whether it will hear Chevron's claims in full, it has put pressure on Ecuador to prevent any enforcement of the ruling while it considers the issue.

This weekend's session is to determine whether Ecuador needs to act to block any attempted enforcement for now. Among the questions Chevron wants answered is whether "there are actions Ecuador's courts still need to take for the judgment to be enforceable," said Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson.

Chevron's wider claims include allegations that the judgment in Ecuador was fraudulent and that the company did not receive due process protections.

The arbitration proceeding is one of three strands of litigation being pursued by Chevron as it seeks to avoid paying up to $18 billion for oil contamination in the eastern part of Ecuador. It is also pursing an appeal to Ecuador's highest court and has filed a racketeering suit in New York accusing the American lawyers who represent the 30,000 plaintiffs of spearheading a fraudulent enterprise.

The role of the arbitration panel has enraged the plaintiffs and their lawyers, who are not a party to the proceeding. Yesterday, they filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asking it to intervene.

The plaintiffs have received the backing of consumer group Public Citizen, which hosted a news conference on the issue in Washington yesterday.

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's global trade watch division, said the Chevron arbitration is an example of how a system that was initially set up simply to compensate companies that lose assets in a particular country has become "expanded and abused."

Arbitrators are not usually confronted with the type of claims Chevron has raised about the judgment in Ecuador, she added.

Public Citizen and others have written a letter to the three panelists asking, among other things, that they explain why "a private arbitral tribunal is an appropriate venue for any proceeding with such broad and serious potential impacts on public interests."

The Ecuadorean government has not issued any public comment on the proceeding this weekend.

Click here to read E&E's special report on the case.