Brazil Overreacts To Chevron Oil Spill With $11 Billion Suit
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2011/12/15/brazil-overreacts-to-chevron-oil-spill-with-11-billion-suit/
excerpted...
Chevron’s spill at the Frade field was roughly 3,000 barrels, and there has been no impact on the coastline. Compare that with the roughly 5 million barrels spill at BP‘s Macondo blowout, which covered Gulf Coast beachers.
And vitally, no one died in Chevron’s spill, versus the 11 killed when the Deepwater Horizon blew up.
BP will likely end up paying around $10,000 per barrel spilled (assuming $50 billion in eventual fines and payments). Chevron and Transocean, if this $11 billion suit were to hold up, would be on the hook for more like $3.5 million per barrel.
...
Virtually no oil drillers will be willing to take the risks of drilling in Brazilian waters given even an outside chance of being saddled with such fines. Analysts at Tudor, Pickering & Holt, in a note this morning, figure that Chevron’s assets in Brazil are worth $4.2 billion, far less than the suit calls for.
So, they could be nationalized as a settlement. Nice move, Brazil.