Chevron asks Ecuador judge to clarify ruling

LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Lawyers for CHEVRON (CVX.NY)Corp on Thursday requested clarification of a recent court ruling in Ecuador that ordered the U.S. oil company to pay $8.6 billion in damages for contaminating the Amazon.

Indigenous farmers in Ecuador's jungle region say the company is responsible for polluting a Rhode Island-sized swath of rainforest through faulting drilling practices in the 1970s and 1980s.

Judge Nicolas Zambrano of Sucumbios provincial court on Monday ruled that Chevron contaminated the jungle. He ordered the California-based company to pay the $8.6 billion, one of the biggest environmental judgments ever.

"Chevron presented at 8 am today its request for Judge Zambrano to clarify and expound upon specific points of his February 14 ruling," company spokesman James Craig told Reuters.

Chevron had considered appealing the ruling on Thursday but will now do so after the judge responds.

"The filing today has the same effect as an appeal in that it suspends the enforcement or execution of the verdict," Craig said. "The judge must resolve our request for clarification of his ruling and, upon doing that, the company will have 72 hours to file its appeal."

Zambrano's tiny courtroom is in a rundown building in an Amazon town called Lago Agrio near the Colombian border. He will start to study Chevron's 31-page request on Monday, court officials told Reuters.

Resolution of the case could be years away, and few analysts expect the company to pay anything soon, if at all. Chevron's stock price was not hit by the February 14 ruling, as investors had widely expected the verdict.

However, investors and the petroleum industry are watching to see if Chevron will have to pay massive damages, setting a precedent that could fuel other big lawsuits against oil companies accused of polluting countries around the world.

Chevron says it is innocent of the charges and that the 17-year-old legal saga is being driven more by greedy trial lawyers than concern for the environment.

Lawyers for the 47 named plaintiffs in the lawsuit meanwhile say they will file papers later on Thursday before a three-judge panel at the Lago Agrio court in a bid to increase the damages award.

Plaintiffs say Texaco wrecked wide areas of Ecuador's jungle by dumping drilling waste into unlined pits and leaving them to fester, an accusation that the company denies.

Chevron inherited the case when it bought Texaco in 2001. It says the company cleaned up all pits it was responsible for before turning them over to Ecuador's state-owned oil firm, Petroecuador, which still operates in the area.

In its request for clarification of the ruling, Chevron wants to know more about the formula that Zambrano used to come up with his damages assessment.

The company is also asking the judge if he viewed outtakes from the 2009 documentary "Crude" that were subpoenaed by Chevron as part of U.S. court proceedings related to the case.

The company says the clips, which did not appear in the film, show evidence of fraud on the part of the plaintiffs.

(Reporting by Victor Gomez, writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Dave Zimmerman)