In an unusual move, authorities raided the offices of an oil and gas producer that had shirked its clean up duties.
The offices of QuarterNorth Energy in Lafayette, Louisiana, were searched this week by agents from the U.S. Department of Interior and the EPA.
In January of 2021, there was a pressure incident at a gas well owned by Fieldwood off the coast of southern Louisiana, which was not reported to authorities until August of 2016 and was still not fixed a year later, causing a larger spill. The events leading up to the incident were caused by Fieldwood's lack of communication and urgency to address the issues.
In exchange for cooperating with authorities and paying a $2 million fine, the government agreed to not investigate the company for its role in two oil spills. According to sources, the incident at the well off the coast of southern Louisiana may have violated the agreement.
Fieldwood's company's bankruptcy reorganization plan was approved last year and is causing a complex and quiet legal battle between the company over who will hold the check for their old assets The company split its more profitable assets between its successor company and transferred older wells to two other corporations in order to shirk responsibility for their Cleanup. Even though federal and local regulations require companies to clean up old drilling sites, this can often fall to the bottom of the list in financial importance during a bankruptcy hearing; investors scrambling for a remaining piece of the pie will often walk away with all the money that's left
When it comes to the dangers of oil companies going bankrupt and not doing due diligence on cleaning up their messes, the QuarterNorth/Fieldwood disaster is just the beginning. More than 260 oil companies in the U.S. have filed for bankruptcy in the last two years, and many of them are trying to figure out ways to avoid paying for their clean up obligations.
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