In February 2011, after an 18-year legal battle, an Ecuadorean provincial court said Chevron owed $18.2 billion to remediate damage caused by its predecessor Texaco, which drilled in the Amazon from 1964 to 1992.
While court-appointed expert Richard Cabrera testified that the drilling caused extensive health problems in the region, Chevron tried to rebut these claims with reports from its own expert, epidemiologist Michael Kelsh.