Chevron Cleared To Continue Its Joint Venture Agreement With YPF To Exploit Vaca Muerta

The legal war against San Ramon, California-based Chevron has been waged in several countries, including Argentina, where the law firm of Bruchou, Fernandez Madero y Lombardi tried to enforce the Ecuadorian judgment, enforcement which was finally rejected by the Supreme Court of Argentina. Now Chevron persuaded a federal appeals court this week to confirm U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan decision of March 2014, barring the enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment, citing the corruption used to obtain it. The decision block the enforcement in the United States of an $8.65 billion Ecuadorean pollution judgment which the court agreed, was obtained through bribery and fraud. (see http://fortune.com/2016/08/09/chevron-wins-major-ruling-in-8-6-billion-ecuador-pollution-case/).

In March 2014, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan had already barred enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment in the USA, citing the corruption used to obtain it but claimants hired lawyers in Brazil and Argentina to try to enforce it. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld the lower court ruling against the American lawyer Steven Donziger, who has spent years battling Chevron to hold it responsible for pollution in the Ecuadorean rain forest. "Even innocent clients may not benefit from the fraud of their attorney," Circuit Judge Amalya Kearse wrote for a three-judge panel in a 127-page decision.

R. Hewitt Pate, Chevron's general counsel, said in a statement the decision "leaves no doubt that the Ecuadorean judgment against Chevron is the illegitimate and unenforceable product of misconduct."

FLOTEK INDUSTRIES AND YPF TECHNOLOGIA S.A. SIGN JOINT TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

HOUSTON and BUENOS AIRES,

July 25, 2016 / Source PRNewswire

Flotek Industries, Inc. signed a five-year joint technology development agreement with YPF Technologia S.A., the technology arm of YPF Sociedad Anonima, the vertically-integrated national energy company of Argentina. Flotek and Y-TEC will jointly work to develop new technologies and new applications of current technologies with a focus on the oil and gas industry as well as industrial applications beyond energy. Flotek and Y-TEC's initial collaboration in the energy space will focus on:

The use of customized chemistry to develop "full fluid systems", building from Flotek's patented CnF® and PrF" technology platforms for deployment in both the Vaca Muerta shale and Neuquen tight gas basins. Design and implementation...