A federal judge ordered Sunoco Logistics to pay interest and punitive damages totaling about $155 million on nearly 1.6 million late payments it made over a period of about eight years to 53,000 royalty owners in wells across Oklahoma.
The ruling was handed down this week in a lawsuit brought by Perry Cline, an Oklahoma farmer who asserted the company wasn’t paying customers what they were owed.
The judge concluded Sunoco decided not to pay owed interest on late payments for oil purchases involving well owners, unless each customer specifically requested to receive the compensation.
“Since most well owners do not know they can get the payment, few request their interest and Sunoco keeps the money. It amounts to millions of dollars each year,” wrote U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr.
The persons or entities excluded from the Class are: (1) agencies, departments, or instrumentalities of the United States of America or the State of Oklahoma; (2) publicly traded oil and gas companies and their affiliates; (3) persons or entities that Plaintiffs counsel may be prohibited from representing under Rule 1.7 of the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct; and (4) officers of the court.
How do we know if we were one of Sunoco people? Sunoco was and is paying on quite a few of my wells but now have turned some over to Transoil Marketing. I don’t know who’s paying on the others. Is it Sunoco as payor that is the problem or Sunoco as operator? and do we look at statement dates they are paying on to decide as to whether they were late? Also does anyone deal with XTO? They are paying me $1 a month interest on a well and keep paying me for wells from 2014-2019 during the 2020 payments. Whats up with that? Aren’t those late payments? they do not identify what the interest payment is and when calling them I asked them to please put the name of the well and what the total amount is of the interest is as I’d like it all at one time…and why paying $1 a month on it on the statement . So have to go thru email to their people handling problem, set screened and get a email back that their working on it. Anyone else think their statements are difficult to read?
Sunoco is not an operator, only a purchaser. If you have been paid in the past by Sunoco, chances are you will get a few bucks. If you haven’t ever been paid by Sunoco, chances are you won’t get anything.
The best way to deal with payments is by sending certified mail to the party you have questions with. E-mails and phone calls get lost in the shuffle.
If you received a case notice by mail, then you may be a part of the class. If you did not, then they may not have a correct address for you or you may not have met the requirements of the class action. See the “who is included” note above.