(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 1/20/15)
By Daniel Gilbert
When a federal judge ruled last fall on who was to blame for the
2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, he didn't point a finger at
Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
But the energy company is facing a pollution penalty of as much
as $4.6 billion because it owned 25% of the oil well drilled by the
ill-fated rig, and would have gained a quarter of the crude it
pumped if the well hadn't exploded.
Now Anadarko, one of the largest U.S. energy producers, is set
to battle federal prosecutors in a trial beginning Jan. 20. It will
argue alongside BP PLC, which operated the well known as Macondo. A
judge will determine how much each company should pay per barrel
spilled.
Anadarko paid BP $4 billion in 2011 to release it of any
liability from third-party claims and certain environmental fines.
But federal and appellate judges have held that Anadarko is still
liable under the Clean Water Act.
"Any penalty that is not measured in billions of dollars would
go largely unnoticed at a company the size of" Anadarko, Justice
Department lawyers wrote in December. Citing Anadarko's limited
role as an investor in the well, the government concludes the firm
should pay more than $1 billion but "well below" the maximum.
A spokesman for Anadarko declined to comment and pointed to its
regulatory and court filings. In those documents, the company,
which has a stock-market value of about $38.5 billion, says it
should pay no penalty.
"Anadarko was a faultless, non-operating investor" in the
Deepwater Horizon venture, its lawyers contend, and penalizing it
"could be counterproductive to offshore safety."
Anadarko has set aside $90 million to pay for any penalty. It
tried to settle the case for that amount last July, but was
rebuffed by the U.S. government.
Mitsui & Co.'s MOEX Offshore, another Deepwater Horizon
investor, reached a $90 million settlement with the Justice
Department in 2012, including $70 million to resolve violations
under the Clean Water Act.
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