Burlington Resources Inc., a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, has agreed to pay $97.5 million to settle a whistleblower’s claims that it underpaid royalties owed for natural gas produced on federal and Indian lands during a 17-year period.
Burlington agreed to the settlement to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it “systematically underreported the value of natural gas that it produced from onshore federal and Indian leases … [and] paid less royalties than it owed to the United States and various Indian tribes,” according to the Justice Department. Companies are required to report monthly the value of the natural gas produced from their federal and Indian leases and to pay a percentage of the reported value as royalties. (AP)
