Texas-based oil company to pay New Mexico $24.5 million over pollution allegations

* Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected to note that allegations against Ameredev related to flaring natural gas.

SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – After getting notice of a fine for over $40 million, a Texas-based oil and gas company has reached a $24.5 million settlement with the New Mexico Environment Department.

“It’s a message to oil and gas companies that aren’t following our rules,” said Michelle Miano, Director of the Environmental Protection Division. “We are watching and that we will hold bad actors to account.”

The environment department claimed the company, Ameredev, “exploited public health for profit” and “willfully ignored” New Mexico’s oil and gas rules. For the alleged, violations, the state issued a $40 million fine to Ameredev.

“Our investigators went out to inspect and sure enough we found several violations, numerous violations that ended up becoming the baes of our administrative compliance order,” Miano said.

Now, the company has agreed to pay to settle the matter. At $24.1 million, the New Mexico Environment Department says the settlement agreement is the largest civil oil and gas settlement the state has ever received. The money will go into New Mexico’s general-use fund.

“This settlement makes one thing crystal clear – companies that pollute our air will pay for circumventing New Mexico’s rules,” Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a press release. “Today’s settlement is about penalizing the bad actors in an effort to protect communities from breathing harmful pollution.”

After the state told Ameredev that five of their facilities improperly flared over three billion cubic feet of natural gas, the company hired third-party contractors to help with compliance issues. Now, the state’s environment department says they do not know of any further issues at Ameredev facilities.

With the settlement, in addition to giving the state millions of dollars, Ameredev agreed to perform compliance audits of all their New Mexico facilities, report monthly emission rates from each facility, implement advanced leak detection technology, and remove some equipment until they submit the correct permit application.

“This is an issue we take very seriously. Over the last four years, Ameredev has not experienced any flaring-related excess emissions events thanks to our significant – and ongoing – investments in various advanced technologies and operational enhancements,” Ameredev said in a statement. “We are pleased to resolve this legacy issue, and look forward to continuing to responsibly work with the State of New Mexico and regional stakeholders to support the state’s economic development as well as American energy security.”

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