Oil company to plead guilty to criminal charges over Montana spill

HELENA – An oil company has agreed to plead guilty to two criminal charges and pay a $100,000 fine for a 2011 spill in northwestern Montana, but its attorneys urged a judge to approve the deal quickly while it can still afford to pay.

FX Drilling Inc. will admit to negligently discharging oil into waters of the United States and to failing to immediately notify federal officials, under a plea agreement filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The deal calls for the company to pay the fine on top of the $321,000 it already spent to clean up the spill, and for federal prosecutors to dismiss charges against the company's supervisor.

Up to 840 gallons of oil and production fluid leaked from a cracked line at an oil field on Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The spill spread over land nearly a mile to Cut Bank Creek, where it was spotted by a rancher and reported to the Blackfeet Environmental Office, according to prosecutors.

Blackfeet officials informed FX Drilling of the spill, but the company never reported it to the federal National Response Center, prosecutors said.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/oil-company-to-plead-guilty-to-criminal-charges-over-montana/article_bed10dd0-3377-5c05-9da3-d482c796fc33.html