"Anadarko Pays Record $5.15 Billion Environmental Settlement"

"WASHINGTON, DC -- Anadarko Petroleum Corp. [Friday] paid a record $5.15 billion settlement to the U.S. government and others – the largest environmental enforcement recovery payment ever obtained in a lawsuit by the Department of Justice.

As a result, more than $4.4 billion will be distributed to fund environmental cleanups and to settle environmental claims across the country.

Last April, Anadarko Petroleum and subsidiaries it acquired when it bought Kerr-McGee Corp. in 2006 agreed to pay the $5.15 billion to settle fraudulent conveyance allegations brought by the U.S. government and co-plaintiff Anadarko Litigation Trust in the bankruptcy of Tronox Inc.

As explained by U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, who approved the settlement in November, this case arises from a 'series of transactions by the Kerr-McGee Corp. that resulted in the spin-off of Tronox, which Kerr-McGee left saddled with the massive environmental and tort liabilities it had accumulated over the course of decades of operating in the chemical, mining, and oil and gas industries, but without sufficient assets with which to address these liabilities.'"

Environment News Service had the story January 23, 2015.