An independent environmental expert told a court in Ecuador that the oil company Chevron should pay $7 billion to $16 billion in compensation for environmental damage in the country.

In a report to the court, the expert, Richard Cabrera, who is a geologist, said the low end of the range represented the cost to remediate soils and pay for health care costs, a water system and infrastructure improvements.

The high end of the range was based on an “unjust enrichment” penalty.

The lawsuit, which peasants and Indians in Ecuador brought in the early 1990s, contends that Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001, polluted the jungle and damaged their health by dumping 18 billion gallons of contaminated water from 1972 to 1992.

Chevron’s general counsel, Charles James, disputed the findings of the report, saying the case had become a political issue in Ecuador.