FEBRUARY 20, 2015
ExxonMobil's unconventional unit XTO Energy has been fined
more than $1.3 million by federal US regulators for wilfully failing to
permit an audit in North Dakota.
The Department of
the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) said in a
statement this week that that the civil penalty, which involved several
communitisation agreements in North Dakota, "substantially delayed the
audit completion and diverted ONRR’s resources to pursuing, rather than
examining, the requested information".
"It
is imperative that companies provide information requested for an
audit," said ONRR deputy assistant secretary Paul Mussenden, adding that
XTO had failed to provide requested information related to federal oil
and gas leases.
The leases
were included within several communisation agreements in North Dakota.
Multiple leases are often combined under a communitisation agreement if
they are drawing from the same oil or gas reservoir, ONRR said.
North
Dakota originally sent an audit engagement letter and data request to
XTO in February 2013, requesting the information by 1 April of that
month.
The state and ONRR
sent "numerous" follow-up e-mails to Texas-based XTO detailing what was
needed to complete the audit. The company was also granted an extended
deadline for compiliance.
"However,
the company did not fully comply until February 2014, preventing timely
completion of North Dakota’s audit," ONRR said in a statement.
XTO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.