Editing Texaco (section)

==Environmental issues==
{{Main|Lago Agrio oil field}}

From 1965 to 1993, Texaco participated in a consortium to develop the [[Lago Agrio oil field]] in Ecuador. The company was accused of extensive environmental damage from these operations, and faces legal claims from both private plaintiffs and from the government of Ecuador. The case was widely publicized by environmental activists and was the subject of ''Crude'', a 2009 documentary film by Joe Berlinger.

In turn, Texaco's owner Chevron claims that it was being unfairly targeted as a [[deep pocket]] defendant, when the actual responsibility lies with the government and its [[national oil company]], [[Petroecuador]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stephens |first1=Beth |title=The Amorality of Profit: Transnational Corporations and Human Rights. |journal=Berkeley Journal of International Law |date=2002 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=45–90 |url=https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/bjil/|access-date=30 May 2019}}</ref>

Texaco allegedly decided to forgo their standard drilling practices in favor for a minor savings on the cost to produce a barrel of crude oil (approximately $3/barrel). Texaco allegedly dumped toxic wastewater directly into rivers, dumped waste into unlined pits, and created pits that were fitted with overflow pipes to nearby waterways, with pits also never being emptied after the drilling operations were concluded. In total, it is estimated that over 18 billion gallons of toxic waste were released into the Amazon Rainforest. In addition to the liquid pollution, it is alleged that workers burned off toxic natural gasses and some liquid waste, thus releasing highly toxic dioxins into the atmosphere.<ref>{{cite web |title=The 'Amazon Chernobyl' Disaster in Ecuador |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NzMj8Dt3c8 |website=youtube.com |publisher=[[Dark Records]] |language=en |format=video |date=March 23, 2023}}</ref>