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United States reveals record oil and gas contamination penalty against Marathon Oil

U.S. authorities on Thursday revealed a $241 million settlement with Marathon Oil over declared air pollution violations at dozens of the company's oil and gas centers on a North Dakota Indian reservation, stating it was part of a continuous crackdown.

The settlement consists of a record penalty and ecological equipment upgrades. President Joe Biden's administration has ratcheted up enforcement in the oil and gas sector to combat environment change and to counter contamination, especially in bad and minority neighborhoods.

The Marathon settlement represents a great advance in our efforts to attend to climate modification through enforcement action, Todd Kim, assistant chief law officer with the Department of Justice's environment and natural resources department, stated in an interview.

The deal uses to years of alleged excessive volatile organic substance and methane emissions from wells, piping and storage tanks on the Fort Berthold Indian Appointment, home of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Country, at the center of the huge Bakken oil formation.

It is the administration's 12th targeting of the oil and gas sector emissions, however by far its largest.

This settlement is historic, and it is a game changer, Kim said.

Under the deal, Marathon will pay a $64.5 million charge, the biggest ever for violations of the Clean Air Act from stationary sources, according to the Environmental management Agency and the Department of Justice, which collectively submitted the settlement in federal court in North Dakota on Thursday.

That charge is more than double the combined overall of the administration's 11 previous oil and gas Clean Air Act settlements, officials said.

Still, it is dwarfed by Marathon's profits, which were $ 1.55 billion in 2015.

The company will likewise invest an estimated $177 million to bring its centers into compliance with the law. That work will slash 2.25 million lots of co2 emissions over the next five years, about the equivalent of removing 487,000 cars off the roadway for a year.

The settlement undergoes a 30-day public comment period before it can be finalized.

The federal government's complaint declared that Marathon, which is being acquired by ConocoPhillips in a $22.5 billion deal that has yet to be finalized, stopped working to get required permits for its centers.

Marathon did not immediately react to a request for comment.

The stepped-up enforcement effort is in line with Biden's. objective to reduce emissions of methane, a potent worldwide warming gas. that leakages from drill sites and pipelines, and with the vow to. deal with pollution from oil and gas operations close to bad. communities.

An agent for the MHA Nation did not immediately. react to a request for remark.

(source: Reuters)