Reuters: A Brazilian judge dropped criminal charges against Chevron Corp, Transocean Ltd and 17 of their employees related to a November 2011 offshore oil spill, the companies said on Wednesday.
The criminal case, and a civil suit seeking as much as 40 billion reais ($20.4 billion) in damages, have cast a chill over Brazil's oil industry.
The criminal suit carried penalties of up to 31 years. The still-open civil case is Brazil's largest-ever environmental lawsuit, even though the amount of oil spilled...