The federal government announced a $241.5 million settlement with Marathon Oil on Thursday for alleged air quality violations at the company's oil and gas operations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in the US state of North Dakota.
The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice said the settlement requires Marathon to reduce climate and health-harming emissions from those facilities and will result in more than 2.3 million tonnes worth of pollution reduction.
“This historic settlement – the largest civil penalty for violations of the Clean Air Act at stationary sources – will ensure cleaner air for the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and other communities in North Dakota, while holding Marathon accountable for its illegal pollution,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Marathon officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Houston-based Marathon operates 169 well pads in North Dakota, where the company extracts oil and natural gas.
A proposed consent decree for enacting the settlement says the company does not admit any liability over the allegations, but that the two sides agree it will avoid litigation and serve the public interest.
A representative for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation based at the Fort Berthold Reservation did not immediately respond to a request for comment either.
While Marathon is the country's 22nd-largest oil producer based on 2022 data, the federal agencies said, it's also the seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas industry.
Much of its emissions come from flaring, the industry practice of burning waste gases, including methane, which the EPA says is 25 times more potent of a contributor to climate change than carbon dioxide.
While flaring burns off methane and other pollutants, it is not completely efficient, so significant quantities still get released into the atmosphere, which the agencies said can have health impacts on nearby communities.
The settlement is part of an EPA climate change enforcement initiative that focuses in part on reducing methane emissions from oil and gas production and from landfills.
It calls for Marathon to eliminate the equivalent of more than 2.25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next five years, which the agencies said was tantamount to taking 487,000 cars off the road for one year, and will also eliminate nearly 110,000 tonnes of volatile organic compound emissions, which contribute to asthma and other respiratory diseases.
“This settlement is a major win for the health and future of our tribal communities, including people and families who are often overburdened by pollution,” said KC Becker, the EPA's regional administrator.
“As a result of the agreement, Marathon has and will continue to take comprehensive measures to come into compliance and reduce harmful emissions across hundreds of production sources.
“These investments will improve air quality and reduce respiratory illnesses across the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and western North Dakota.”
The agencies said the case is the first of its kind against an oil and gas producer for “violations of major source emissions permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration programme”.
They also said the $64.5 million civil penalty Marathon must pay is the largest penalty imposed for “stationary source violations”, which include facilities such as oil and gas tank systems.