Oil firms settle coastal suit with Cameron Parish, state | Environment - NOLA.com

Oil firms settle coastal suit with Cameron Parish, state | Environment | nola.com

Cameron Parish and the state of Louisiana have reached what could be a landmark settlement with the oil giants BP, Shell and Hilcorp in the first such deal in the 40-plus lawsuits filed by parishes seeking billions of dollars of compensation for coastal wetland damages caused by oil and gas operations.

The parties informed 38th Judicial District Court Judge Penelope Richard on Monday morning that a settlement had been reached, according to Richard's court clerk. Richard had been scheduled to oversee jury selection in the case on Monday.

No information was released about whether the settlement will require the companies to restore damaged property in the East and West Hackberry oil fields -- located on the west side of the Calcasieu River just south of the Calcasieu Parish-Cameron Parish border -- or whether the companies will pay financial damages, or the value of either.

It's not clear where the Cameron Parish suit fits in the pantheon of coastal land-loss suits in terms of alleged damage. Cameron is Louisiana's third-largest parish by area, and the largest parish on the coast. It has been one of the parishes most affected by coastal erosion.

"We can confirm that we have settled BP's involvement in the Auster case," said J.P. Fielder, U.S. communications director for the oil company. "We are subject to the terms of a confidentiality agreement and related order that prohibits us from disclosing the terms of the settlement."

"The parties have confidentially settled, but we do not yet have executed settlement documents that we can release," said Blake Canfield, executive counsel for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. "I’m afraid I can’t provide much more information at this time."

A spokesperson for the office of Gov. John Bel Edwards said the settlement "has not been fully executed," and that no information would be released until it was completed.

It remains unclear whether the settlement only includes BP America Production Co., Hilcorp Energy Co. and Shell Oil Co. The three firms unsuccessfully petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in November to block the trial on grounds that jurors chosen from the 4,000 parish residents eligible to serve would have "a substantial personal and financial interest in rendering a verdict for their home parish."

The November filing said several other co-defendants had already reached settlements with the parish, including Honeywell International Inc.; Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Onshore LP; Freeport Sulphur Co.; Gulfport Energy Corp.; Taylor Energy Co. LLC; and Vernon E. Faulconer Inc.

None of those settlement documents have been made public, either.

It's also unclear whether the settlement will address any other properties owned by those three companies that may have been included in the other parish lawsuits.

The Cameron settlement follows a series of attempts by dozens of oil companies to move it and all the other parish suits to federal courts, where they would have been tried under federal laws that the oil companies felt would be more favorable to them.

All of those challenges were rejected, however, ending in February with a Supreme Court decision to decline to hear additional appeals.

Both the state of Louisiana and the Louisiana Attorney General's Office are listed as co-plaintiffs in the lawsuits, in part to assure that any favorable decisions result in actions or money used only for coastal restoration.

This map shows the locations of all the oil and gas wells in the East and West Hackberry oil fields listed in the Cameron Parish lawsuit against energy companies, including BP, Shell and Hilcorp. (Cameron Parish)

In most of the lawsuits, including the one filed on behalf of Cameron Parish, the parishes are being represented by the Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello law firm, based in Baton Rouge. The firm has been a huge donor to Louisiana political campaigns.

John Carmouche, a leader in the firm, declined to comment Monday.

The Cameron lawsuit, like all of the parish suits, was written carefully to only request damages from the companies for violations of state laws, especial the state's Coastal Zone Management regulations.

Those regulations, which went into effect in 1978, require companies to restore damages to coastal property, including restoration of oil and gas service canals. They also require hazardous and other waste facilities to have been closed and removed or properly sealed at the end of oil and gas operations, and for the properties to be restored.

The regulations also prohibit the disposal of radioactive wastes, including "naturally occurring radioactive material" found in the "produced water" that is pumped out of wells with oil and gas.

The lawsuit said the companies' operations resulted in the release of pollutants into the environment, including in areas away from their operations, and that the drilling and production sites and waste facilities were not built to prevent the release of pollutants.

The suit said the companies illegally disposed of radioactive wastes, including the isotopes Radium 226 and Radium 228, plus naturally occurring radioactive material.

In many cases, unlined earthen waste pits were never closed, or their closures did not comply with state or local laws.

Issues with canals included some that were built larger than permitted, and others that were not maintained to prevent bank slumping, erosion and saltwater intrusion, resulting in their expanding beyond their permitted widths. And most were not restored to their original conditon after their use was no longer needed, as required by state law.

As a result, the suit said, oil and gas operations sped up wetland erosion, including by saltwater intrusion through the canals and the use of the canals as a pathway for damaging hurricane storm surges.

This actually would be the second major settlement involving an oil company and parish coastal damages.

In September 2019, oil and minerals giant Freeport-McMoRan settled for $100 million in cash and environmental credits with the state and multiple parishes for damages listed in a number of the lawsuits, to be paid over several years.

That company's wells accounted for only 4% of the wells drilled in the coastal zone since 1911, and its settlement amount was expected to represent only a fraction of other settlements, Carmouche said at the time.