BP Wins Appeal Over $1.3 Million Owed in Overpayment Interest

The federal government must reimburse BP American Production Co. $1.3 million in oil and gas lease overpayment interest after the Federal Circuit Wednesday affirmed a lower court’s finding that a change in law didn’t preclude the payment.

The Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue told BP in 2016 that it owed about $950,000 because the office no longer had the authority to credit overpayment interest toward the company’s royalty obligations. ONRR cited the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, which revoked the government’s authority to make such payments.

The FAST Act didn’t retroactively eliminate ONRR’s obligation from making ...