Nick Snow
OGJ Washington Editor
WASHINGTON, DC, Apr. 6 -- ExxonMobil Corp. has agreed to pay a $32.2 million federal fine to resolve a whistleblower’s claim that its affiliates knowingly underpaid natural gas royalties on federal and American Indian leases, the US Department of Justice announced on Apr. 5.
It said that the claim arose from allegations that Mobil Natural Gas Inc., Mobil Exploration & Producing US Inc., and their affiliates systematically underreported the value of gas taken from the leases from Mar. 1, 1998, to Nov. 30, 1999, and consequently paid less in royalties to the federal government and various Indian tribes.
DOJ said the settlement arose from a lawsuit filed by Harold Wright on behalf of the US. Whistleblower provisions of the US False Claims Act allow private citizens to sue on behalf of the US and to share in any recovery. DOJ said because Wright is deceased, his heirs will receive a $975,000 share of the settlement.
It said that it partially intervened against the Mobil defendants in Wright’s lawsuit, and previously settled with Burlington Resources Inc. (now part of ConocoPhillips) for $105.3 million; Shell Oil Co. for $56 million; Texaco Inc. and Unocal Corp. (now part of Chevron Corp.) for $45.5 million, and Dominion Exploration & Production Co. for $2 million.
The Mobil companies became part of ExxonMobil when Mobil Corp. and Exxon Corp. merged in November 1999, it noted.
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