Exxon Must Refund $1.9 Billion

A special federal court ruled today that Exxon Corp. overpriced crude oil from a Texas oil field by millions of dollars and ordered the world’s biggest company to pay $1.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury.

The refund, with interest, was the biggest ever awarded under a 1973 law that set up a two-tier price control system on domestic oil production to encourage domestic exploration in the wake of the Arab oil embargo. Exxon is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of the ruling by the Federal Emergency Court of Appeals.