HOUSTON -- Marathon Oil and Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration and Production will pay $6.9 million to resolve claims the two Houston-based energy companies separately underpaid natural gas royalties to the government and Native Americans.
The Justice Department announced the settlement Friday in Washington. Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration and Production Inc. will pay $2.2 million and Marathon Oil Co., $4.7 million.
Most of the settlement money will be distributed to federal, state and American Indian accounts affected by the underpayments. More than $1.8 million will go to heirs of a whistleblower who filed the suit in Beaumont.
Companies are required to report to the Interior Department the value of natural gas produced from their federal and Indian leases monthly. A percentage of that value is paid as royalties.
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