Furie, feds in settlement talks over fine

Furie Operating Alaska LLC and federal officials are in settlement discussions in their court battle over a disputed Jones Act penalty.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, hit Furie with the $15 million fine in October 2011.

The agency said Furie violated the Jones Act, a shipping law, in using a foreign vessel to haul the Spartan 151 jack-up drilling rig partway from Texas to Alaska’s Cook Inlet, where the company used the rig to explore for natural gas.

Furie has refused to pay the fine, and in 2012 sued Homeland Security in an effort to kill it.

Papers filed recently in U.S. District Court in Anchorage indicate the two sides are now talking settlement.

This follows an apparent mediation effort, the papers show.

The parties have been providing the court with periodic updates, and the court has set a Dec. 1 deadline for the next status report.

Furie, headquartered in League City, Texas, is working to begin production from a new offshore platform in the Kitchen Lights gas field in Upper Cook Inlet.

- WESLEY LOY