Exxon faces $1 billion fine for sabotaging Texas oil wells
Published: July 18, 2009
Updated 4 months ago
ExxonMobil’s sabotage of some 100 Texas oil wells in the past 17 years — going so far as to plug up some wells with explosives — means the world’s largest oil company could be liable for penalties of up to $1 billion, the Texas General Land Office says.
Jerry Patterson, commissioner of the state’s land office, released a report earlier this week asking the Texas Railroad Commission — which regulates the state’s oil industry — to investigate “ExxonMobil’s intentional sabotage of oil wells in Refugio County as well as the company’s fraudulent reports covering up the damage.”
“Exxon committed irrefutable, intentional and flagrant violations of state rules regulating the oilfield,” Patterson said in a statement (PDF).
The allegations stem from a lease the company signed with a Texas family, the O’Connors, back in the 1950s to exploit oil fields on the family’s land. When the relationship “went sour,” Patterson states, the energy giant had the oil wells plugged up in such a way that no one else could use them.
Patterson says the company’s reports on the sealing of the oil wells was “fraudulent.”
“When the relationship turned sour in the 1990s, Exxon-Mobil terminated the lease and plugged the wells,” states Patterson’s report. “As per state rules, Exxon filed paperwork with the Railroad Commission outlining its well-plugging procedures and filed sworn affidavits as to the final condition of the wells. The O’Connor family soon learned those reports to the Railroad Commission were fraudulent.
“When an independent producer, Emerald Oil, attempted to capitalize on new legislative incentives to reopen abandoned wells, they found the old Exxon-Mobil wells hadn’t been plugged but sabotaged — filled with junk, cut well casings, contaminated oil tank sludge and even explosives. Many of the wells were left unrecoverable.”
Under Texas state rules, ExxonMobil could be fined as much as $10,000 per sabotaged oil well per day, or some $1 billion in all.
“The allegations paint a false and misleading picture of Exxon Mobil’s involvement in the O’Connor oil and gas leases,” ExxonMobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross stated in a Bloomberg article. “The area in which the wells are located has a water table very close to the surface. It was critical that Exxon protect the groundwater by plugging the wells solidly and thoroughly.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Texas Railroad Commission’s attorney “sent a letter to Exxon Mobil’s attorney, asking the company to reply to the complaint by July 31 and stating that the agency would take no action pending receipt of the response.”
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I would bet these aren’t the only domestic wells sabotaged. It helps drive up the price of oil and lead to foreign imports. The complete industry and its wells and leases should be investigated.
Texas Railroad Commission vs. Exxon wonder who will win that one? Sounds like an episode from the Andy Griffith Show. The oil co.s are corrupt to the core, but this looks like some Texas yahoo trying a get rich scheme.
Texass is investigating Exxon Mobil? Oh, that should go far! Why would anyone but a complete moron even print it? I didn’t see the reporters name. I’ll bet it was Goober.
The penalties are piddling, but it’s a black eye for Exxon, even in Texas oil circles. This won’t go over well.
Screwing the landowner whose land is where the oil lies — as well as the public, of course — is an old game among at least some oil companies.
A billion dollars? That’s nothing to to them. They’ll just raise the price of gas one penny and make it back in one day. The next day, they’ll raise it ten cents just to teach us not to mess with the owners of the U.S. government. Nothing will happen to them Afetr stuffing a thousand dollars up the back sides of the Texas state government, they will be cleared of all liability, then they will bow at the feet of Exxon execs and ask forgiveness.
GIVE THEM THE CHAIR! THE CHAIR!!
Good suggestion ! Thom Hartmann has brought this up: why can’t a company be ‘executed’ ? And here’s a weird one, if the law prohibits me owning YOU (slavery), how come corporations (a legal ‘person’) go around buying and selling ‘eachother’ all the time ( I can understand ‘mergers’, or ‘corporates sex’ as I like to put it).
Corporate charter revocation.
We need to return to the time when corporations served the people while making a profit. If they failed to serve the people, their charters were revoked.
I see markh watches television commercials for information on “alternative energy news” ..Exxon spends more on their TV commercials, proclaiming themselves the “good guys” than do on any “alternative energy programs” (Exxon has spent approximately 600 million on their “alternative energy plans” (mostly TV commercials) and thats is chump change when you stack it up against the 45 BILLION dollars they made in pure PROFIT (in just the year 2008)……but he is right about one thing with Alito and Scalia sitting on the Supreme Court…(two corporate loving fascists) Exxon will never pay one cent in damages….fascists will always protect the corporations “rights” over the rights or needs of individuals….or “our government” (”we the people” are the government!, at least thats what the Constitution used to say)
I made a few thousand dollars off Exxon stock some years ago. Then I dumped it because it is such a crappy company.
Don’t forget the blow to our national security too because of sabotaged wells. National Security, what a fucking catch phrase that doesn’t mean squat. We have no internal national security, its all an illusion. Corporate security actually comes first and they are not paying their fair share of taxes and we all suffer for their price gouging and profiteering. All the while congress shoves it head up their asses at this. A federal investigation should come out of it but don’t count on it with the do nothing, turn a blind eye keaders we have in DC. Promote the general welfare my ass.
Exxon will never pay a dime for this.
The can purchase any legal process to their favor.