The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a challenge by Ecuador against oil-giant Chevron involving a long dispute over a deal to sell oil to the country’s government at a discount.
The South American country was appealing Chevron’s recent 2015 victory in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals over a 2011 international tribunal’s decision in the Hague.
The high court declined the country’s request to rehear the case, allowing a $96 million arbitration award in Chevron’s favor stand.
Chevron spokesman Morgan Crinklaw told Reuters in a statement that the energy firm was pleased Ecuador “will be held accountable,” given Monday’s decision by the high court.
The final award stands at nearly $106 million with interest, Chevron says.
The dispute originated back in the early 1970s when the company Texaco, later bought by Chevron, agreed to develop Ecuador’s oil fields in exchange for selling it at a discount. Texaco filed a number of lawsuits in the 1990s, arguing that the country violated the terms of the agreement.
Chevron took the the matter to the Hague after Ecuadorean courts failed to address the lawsuits in a timely manner, violating a treaty with the U.S.
