Marathon Oil Co. v. Kleppe

McWILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

Marathon Oil Company brought an action to set aside two decisions of the Secretary of the Interior, each of which precluded the counting, for royalty rate determination purposes, of water injection wells located outside the “participating areas.” The trial *983court held that the decision in the Oregon Basin case was manifestly contrary to the applicable provisions of the unit agreement, and similarly that the decision in the Elk Basin case was manifestly contrary to the plain meaning of the language contained in 30 C.F.R. § 221.49, to the end that each decision was…