A United States Federal court judge in San Francisco, California has ruled that five Nigerians alleging ChevronTexaco Corporation is liable for human rights abuses in their country may proceed with a lawsuit against the oil giant.
ChevronTexaco Nigeria has also listed the likely benefits Nigeria stands to gain from the policy of globalisation in the upstream oil and gas industry, while highlighting the need for a robust partnership between organized labour and the oil industry as essential for growth in a global economic environment. It was gathered that U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston declined last week Tuesday to dismiss the case as ChevronTexaco had requested.
The case is before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the ruling was posted on its Web site on Tuesday. In her ruling, Illston noted that the San Ramon, California-based company and its ChevronTexaco Overseas Petroleum Incorporated subsidiary cannot be held directly liable.
But she wrote that a jury could find the two companies indirectly liable for the conduct of Chevron Nigeria Limited, a Chevron joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, in 1998 and 1999. The plaintiffs alleged that Chevron Nigeria recruited Nigerian military and police personnel to fire weapons on Nigerians staging a protest at a Chevron oil platform offshore Warri, Delta State.
The plaintiffs also alleged that Chevron Nigeria's management was involved in the detention and torture of protest leader Bola Oyinbo, and that a helicopter flown by Chevron pilots and vehicles supplied by Chevron Nigeria transported government forces that opened fire on two villages, killing several people. "We agree with the court's determination that there is no evidence that ChevronTexaco or ChevronTexaco Overseas Petroleum can be held directly liable for events complained of by plaintiffs," ChevronTexaco spokesman Stan Luckoski said in a statement. "ChevronTexaco continues to believe that the Nigerians who unlawfully occupied an offshore drilling platform and held some 200 Nigerian and expatriate workers hostage for three days have no basis in fact or in law to claim that their rights were violated when the Nigerian military restored order," Luckoski added.
The personal accounts of the hostages are not consistent with the plaintiffs' claim that they were merely staging a peaceful protest." While speaking at a two-day workshop on "The Oil Industry and the Challenges of Global Village: The PENGASSAN Perspective" organized recently by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Enugu, Chevron boss identified these areas as:
*Transfer of technology and the sharing of best practices
*Local capacity building
*Promotion of Diversity and a Global workforce
*Corporate Responsibility by stimulating sound, safe and Environment-friendly operations
*Partnership for Sustainable Development in host communities
*Qualitative training and development of employees for higher responsibilities in technologicallychallenging fields
*Good Governance and Transparency
Mr. Pryor, who was represented at the occasion by Mr. Emmanuel Imafidon, General Manager, Human Resources, Security and Services of Chevron Nigeria Limited admitted that there are credible and vocal critics of globalization, adding that much could be derived from it when properly harnessed.
"Working with our employees and the government for instance, we appreciate the demand for greater Nigerianization of our industry.
We have built a workforce that today comprises 90% Nigerians. We have also built an integrated workforce that draws strength from its diversity. As of now, we have many of our national employees on international jobs worldwide," he disclosed.
Mr pryor also disclosed that the company is partnering with the local contractors to promote indigenous capacity.
"ChevronTexaco was the first company to voluntarily relinquish a marginal field to an indigenous operator. We also showed commitment to partnership by collaborating recently with two local companies- Transcoastal and Nigerdock Plc to achieve 100% local fabrication of the Meren- X, an oil platform.
The two firms also benefitted from our company's unbending priority to safety and sound environmental practices, a culture that has won several awards, including the very first award for environment-friendly operations by the Federal Ministry of Environment to an oil producing company."
allafrica.com/stories/200403300617.htmlE-mail this article