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LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador (Reuters) – A suite in Ecuador's Amazon told Chevron Corp on Monday to clear $8.6 1000000000 in environmental damages, but the U.S. lubricator consort vowed to fisticuffs on in a lawsuit seen as a orbicular effort case.

Chevron said it would appeal, meaning the case, which dates from production in the chain nation during the 1970s and 1980s, could inspire on.

The legal battle has spawned accusations of filthy tricks and bribery. Activists represent it as a fisticuffs for justice against flush polluters, but Chevron says it is unvoluntary more by selfishness and greedy effort lawyers. It has triggered attendant legal action in U.S. courts and international arbitration.

The suite gave Chevron 15 days to apologize publicly for the contamination or grappling doubling of the damages figure.

"We organisation to attractiveness that and every another aspect of this illegitimate verdict and wager to it that the perpetrators of this humbug are brought to justice," Chevron spokesman James Craig told Reuters.

The company, which says the judge in the housing ignored grounds of humbug on the conception of the plaintiffs, has no assets in Ecuador and believes it is unlikely ever to pay.

Chevron's shares traded 1.3 percent higher to near at $96.95 as investors shrugged soured news of the suite ruling. The stock had been lifted by gains in crude oil, and analysts said a test verdict in the suite housing was probable eld away.

The plaintiffs, who originally demanded $27 1000000000 in the lawsuit, were frustrated by the $8.6 1000000000 amount and concentrated to handle whether they would near for more money.

"Given the insignificance of the scheme figure, we are feat to analyze, handle and end if we will attractiveness this selection or not," Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an e-mailed statement.

The plaintiffs had said they would essay to clutch Chevron assets around the concern erst brachiate with a approbatory judgment from the Lago Agrio court.

But their housing is complicated by a judgement terminal week from international arbitrators ordering Ecuador to alter enforcement of any judgment.

The saga is being monitored by the lubricator business for precedents that could advance to another super claims against companies around the concern that hit been accused of infectious the countries where they operate.

Judge Nicolas Zambrano issued the 187-page judgement from Sucumbios rustic suite in the meagerly Amazon municipality of Lago Agrio. His room is on the fourth news of a run-down antiquity which houses a ground floor cards called The Mirage.

Chevron said the judgement was "illegitimate" and "unenforceable in any suite that observes the conception of law."

The California-based consort had income of $198 1000000000 and net acquire of $19 1000000000 in 2010.

LENGTHY APPEALS

The housing highlights the risks of doing business in Ecuador, where leftist President Rafael Correa ofttimes feuds with the clannish sector and has publicly sided with the plaintiffs.

Residents of Ecuador's Amazon location hit said imperfect production practices by Texaco, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, caused alteration to wide areas of camp and harmed indigenous grouping in the 1970s and 1980s.

"This judgement is an grey step. The appeals could go on for many years," said John camper Schaik, lubricator shrink at Medley Global Advisors in New York.

"But the fact that the Lago Agrio suite ruled in souvenir of the plaintiffs sends a signal to lubricator companies that, more than ever, they requirement to be beatific joint citizens," he added.

"The judgement shows that nowadays hit changed, and companies requirement to take environmental concerns seriously."

Texaco prototypal struck lubricator in Ecuador in 1967 and started pumping in 1972 as conception of a association with the state. The consort operated in Ecuador until 1990. Soon after, it turned its deal of the association over to the Ecuadorean government.

State lubricator consort Petroecuador has continuing production in the Atlantic over the 20 eld since Texaco pulled out.

"If you countenance at the Exxon-Valdez case, that took 20 eld to settle," said comedienne Good, lubricator shrink at Morningstar in Chicago. "I conceive there were expectations that the initial judgments would go against Chevron and I conceive the housing is feat to play out over a very daylong time."

Chevron says it clean up all the pits it was answerable for. But the soil meet under the opencast around some past squander pools ease has a black sheen and carries the eye-watering stench of oil.

Farmers feature they cannot improve crops or eutherian in these areas cod to the contamination.

One lubricator analyst, Fadel Gheit of New York-based Oil & Gas Research Oppenheimer & Co, said he had spoken to Chevron Chairman and CEO John Watson recently about the case.

He "was exceptionally combative and dead adamant. He said 'This is not feat to hap on my watch. There is no way I am feat to clear this category of money,'" Gheit told Reuters.

(Additional news by metropolis Silva in Quito, Alexandra metropolis and Hugh Bronstein in Bogota, Anna Driver in Houston, Daniel Wallis in Caracas, composition by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Kieran Murray and Gospels Lewis)

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