Bureau of Land Management
Matt Spangler
April 7, 2011

The Bureau of Land Management announced today the largest civil penalty settlement in the agency’s history, resolving a dispute over submission of inaccurate site security diagrams for oil production facilities on Federal and Indian lands in Utah.

A joint investigation by the BLM and the DOI Office of the Inspector General uncovered that, from 2005 through 2007, an employee of Berry Petroleum Co. had installed disabled "equalizer valves" on 154 well sites in the Brundage Canyon area of Utah. The regulations governing the proper operation of equalizer valves help to ensure an accurate accounting of oil production volumes. The investigation also uncovered that the same employee prepared 140 diagrams that incorrectly showed the equalizer valves would be sealed closed when the storage tanks were in the sales phase. The stated motivation of the Berry employee who had the disabled valves installed was to avoid overflow spills from the tanks.

The investigation uncovered no evidence that senior management of Berry Petroleum knew the valves were disabled or that the diagrams were incorrect, and the company replaced the disabled valves with functioning valves upon notification by the BLM. There was also no evidence of loss of oil or of royalty revenue, nor harm to the environment, as a result of the violations.

Berry has agreed to pay $2.1 million in civil penalties to resolve the dispute.

Click here to read the complete press release.