A federal claims court judge decided earlier in the month that 13 oil and natural gas exploration companies are collectively entitled to $1.1 billion in restitution for bonuses paid between 1968 and 1984 for offshore drilling leases they were never able to exercise because of subsequent federal policies that discouraged drilling. The joint venture between ExxonMobil and Shell, Aera Energy, was the largest individual holder of the lease rights.

The ruling is appealable, and no money will be paid out until the appeals process is complete, according to a brief report from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, which concluded that the credit ratings of one of the plaintiffs, Denver-based Delta Petroleum Corp., will be unaffected by the court ruling since the company’s $121 million share of the judgment has already been taken into consideration in setting current ratings on the company. Other individual company portions of the billion-dollar decision have not been made public.

The judgment from the U. S. Court of Federal Claims comes after more than 20 years during which the federal government has held the collective $1.2 billion in up-front bonuses paid by the plaintiffs and their predecessor companies in exchange for 40 undeveloped oil and gas leases off of California. (Four leases were subsequently dropped, leaving the 36 and $1.1 billion now in play.)

“Because Congress’ 1990 amendment of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act breached the 36 leases subject to this motion, we hold that plaintiffs are entitled to treat the breach as an anticipatory repudiation and obtain restitution of the bonus payments made for these leases,” said Judge Eric Bruggink.

Besides Aera and Delta Petroleum’s subsidiary, Amber Resources, the companies sharing the favorable decision are:Anadarko Petroleum, Devon Energy, Plains Exploration and Production, RME Petroleum, Noble Energy, and Total E&P.

In the only prepared announcements by the companies so far as of Monday, Delta confirmed it was one of the plaintiffs in the case, and that the federal claims court also dismissed a motion by the U.S. government attorneys to dismiss the lawsuit and for a summary judgment in the case.

“The United States Court of Federal Claims ruled that the federal government’s imposition of new onerous requirements that stood as a significant obstacle to oil and gas development breached agreements that it made when it sold 36 federal leases offshore California,” Delta said in a prepared statement. “The court further ruled that the government must give back to the current lessees the more than $1.1 billion in lease bonuses it had received at the time of sale.”

“Any proceeds Delta receives are expected to be used to repay debt and help fund reserve and production growth,” S&P said in its analysis.

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