A settlement has been reached to resolve False Claims Acts allegations against Louis Dreyfus Energy Services who is accused of failing to pay money owed on natural gas acquired from the Department of the Interior.
The settlement agreement resolves contentions by the United States that from December 2004 to March 2008, Louis Dreyfus Energy Services made false claims or misleading statements to the Department of the Interior involving contracts to buy natural gas produced from federal oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. Starting in 2004, Louis Dreyfus agreed to pay the Interior Department for natural gas based on a price associated with the delivery of the gas at a fixed point along a natural gas pipeline. After its contracts with the Interior Department were executed, the company requested and received a discount in the price it would pay the Interior Department for the natural gas obtained under the contracts. The United States contends that this price discount applied only when there was a complete or near-complete constraint in the natural gas pipeline such that Louis Dreyfus was unable to transport natural gas along the pipeline. However, the energy services company claimed and obtained the price discounts even on days when it was able to ship natural gas along the pipeline. Thus, the United States contends that Louis Dreyfus was not entitled to the price discounts that it sought and received from the Department of the Interior.
