Change in Worst-Case Oil Spill Calculation Merits Supreme Court Review, Company Says

摘要

An oil company is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the federal government can amend an offshore oil exploration lease under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act via an e-mail and an "in- formal guidance document" when thousands of similar leases and billions of dollars are at stake (Century Exploration New Orleans, LLC v. United States, U.S., No. 14-459, petition for certiorari filed 10/17/14). In 2008, Century Exploration New Orleans LLC entered into a lease with the Department of the Interior that allowed the company to drill on the Outer Continental Shelf. Now Century is appealing a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the government did not breach that contract when it changed how Century and other lessees must calculate their worst-case discharge volume to determine their potential oil spill liability (Century Exploration New Orleans, LLC v. United States, 745 F.3d 1168, 78 ERC 1482, 2014 BL 71015 (Fed. Cir. 2014)).