AP: $1.1 billion awarded in offshore oil case

[question everything]

$1.1 billion awarded in offshore oil case

ASSOCIATED PRESS

November 19, 2005

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government must repay $1.1 billion to oil and gas companies with long-held leases off the California coast for enduring repeated delays in developing the undersea oil fields.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., made its decision Tuesday and announced it Thursday.

The decision is a significant development in resolving the fate of 36 undeveloped tracts off Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The 13 oil and gas companies holding the leases are prepared to return them as soon as they receive $1.1 billion and a few hundred million dollars in related costs, said their lead attorney Edward Bruce. The leases, which sit atop an estimated 512 million barrels of oil, have not been developed, in part, due to delays by federal regulators, state environmental concerns, various lawsuits and efforts in Congress to give states more power over oil drilling decisions.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051119/news_1b19leases.html

[Burried News]

1. Sounds like the fix was in. How did they prove 512 million

barrels of oil were down there and realistically extractable.
They made a business decision and lost - tough shit.

And meanwhile can GI's maimed in Iraq because their vehicles were insufficiently armored, sue either the gov't or the vehicle manufacturers for negligence ... well that's just the way it is in Chicago.

[fed-up]

2. More of our tax dollars to the thieving oil companies... n/t

[fasttense]

3. Just what the poor little oil companies need - more money. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

4. not just more money... MORE OF OUR TAX MONEY!

this is completely insane.