HILCORP SAN JUAN TO FORK OVER $34.6 MILLION
Hilcorp San Juan – an oil and gas company – has agreed to pay $34.6 million to resolve claims that it underpaid the government royalties that were due for the oil and natural gas Hilcorp had extracted from federal lands.
Apparently, from August 2017 through December 2018, Hilcorp only submitted estimated payments without later adjusting those numbers to reflect the “actual volumes and values,” as it was contractually obligated to do.
In a written statement, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division noted that “U.S. taxpayers deserve a fair share of the revenues received by companies that extract natural resources from public lands ….The department remains committed to ensuring that energy companies accurately report and pay to the United States the amount of royalties that are owed for their use of these resources.”
The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
Taking about royalty: would that constitute a king’s ransom?
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