Marathon Oil, one of the United States’ largest independent oil and gas producers, will pay a $64.5 million fine for allegedly rampant violations of Clean Air Act permitting requirements at its operations at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, according to a tentative deal.
Under the proposed consent decree announced Thursday by EPA and the Justice Department, Houston-based Marathon Oil will also spend an estimated $177 million on compliance measures expected to eventually cut tens of thousands of tons in emissions of smog-forming volatile organic compounds and methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The reservation, located in western North Dakota, sits atop the Bakken shale formation that is one of the United States’ top oil producing regions. The newly announced settlement follows years of investigation, documents indicate.
The Biden administration in a news release labeled the fine the largest ever for stationary sources under the clean air statute.
Asked Thursday whether EPA has any other pending enforcement initiatives in the Bakken region, a spokesperson said the agency could not comment.
The overall settlement “is the most significant to date under EPA’s climate enforcement initiative and makes clear that EPA will hold corporate polluters like Marathon accountable for violations that put communities and our futures at risk,” David Uhlmann, assistant administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Houston-based Marathon Oil, which reported almost $1.6 billion in net income for 2023, did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment Thursday afternoon. As part of the tentative settlement, the company does not admit any liability.
The proposed consent decree, which was lodged Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, still requires a judge’s approval following a routine 30-day public comment period.
In a merger announced in May, ConocoPhillips is in the process of acquiring Marathon Oil. Following a 2011 spinoff, Marathon Oil is completely separate from Marathon Petroleum, the Ohio-based refiner, a spokesperson for the latter company said in an email.
In a complaint also filed with the court Thursday, the Justice Department alleged that Marathon sidestepped preconstruction permitting requirements for at least 38 oil and gas production facilities by submitting “artificially low” estimates for VOC and carbon monoxide emissions “based on erroneous and unreasonable assumptions.”
“In reality, Marathon’s facilities collectively emitted thousands more tons of pollutants per year than the estimates provided to EPA,” the complaint continues. In all, the government alleged Clean Air Act violations at almost 90 Marathon facilities, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the release.
Although Marathon ranked as the nation’s 22nd largest oil producer based on 2022 data, it is the oil and gas industry’s seventh largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, largely because of methane released through flaring, the release added.
