10 April 2014, News Wires – US regulators have fined a privately held oil company in New Mexico more than $717,000 for failing to provide production reports to the government for leases on federal lands.
The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), a division of the Interior Department, brought the hammer down on Louis Fulton, who does business as CFM Oil, based in Artesia, New Mexico.
ONRR sent CFM a notice of noncompliance in April last year for failure to report production on leases the company operates.
“Despite several contacts by ONRR, CFM did not provide the production reports to ONRR, and still has not provided the required information,” the agency said.
ONRR Director Greg Gould said the civil penalty will continue to accrue until CFM submits the reports.
“It is unacceptable for energy companies to fail to report production as required by law,” Gould said in a statement.
New Mexico state records list CFM as the operator of around 38 wells on federal leases. Five of those are injection wells and the rest are “active” oil wells. Most show the last production reported in May of 2012.
A message left for the company was not returned on Wednesday.
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