Type Privately held company Founder Clarence Berry Parent organization Linn Energy | Industry Petroleum industry Founded 1909 | |
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Key people Clarence Berry, Founder Products petroleum, natural gas, and natural gas liquids Headquarters Denver, Colorado, United States | ||
Berry Petroleum Company is a petroleum, natural gas, and natural gas liquids exploration and production company based in Denver, Colorado. It was founded in 1909 by Clarence Berry.
Contents
Current operations
Its operation areas include 46% in California, 23% in the Permian Basin, and 13% in the Uintah Basin.
History
Berry Petroleum Company first started its exploration in 1909 in California.
In August 1996, Berry Petroleum agreed to buy Tannehill Oil and its affiliates for $25.2 million.
In 2003, Berry acquired properties in the the Uintah Basin in northwestern Utah.
In February 2013, Linn Energy acquired Berry Petroleum Company for $4.3 billion, including $2.5 billion in stock.
In February 2017, Linn Energy completed a financial restructure that included the corporate spin-off of Berry into a separate company with separate ownership.
1993 Oil spill
In December 1993, an oil pipeline owned by Berry Petroleum leaked, resulting in a spill of 84,000 gallons of heavy crude oil into McGrath Lake, near Oxnard, California. Berry had acquired the 40-year-old pipeline from Chevron in 1990 after it had been abandoned for 10 years. The line had been used to transport natural gas, yet Berry began to pump crude oil through it without making any upgrades. Moreover, it was revealed that 10 months before the oil spill occurred, a safety valve that might have prevented the leak had broken and was not repaired. Both Berry and the state negotiated through the press, with Berry countering prosecutors threats with talk of suing the agencies that neglected to investigate witness reports and notify company officials of the leak. Several months later Berry agreed to pay a $600,000 settlement and pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of failing to report the leak. In addition, the foreman on duty during the spill pleaded no contest to a charge of illegally releasing oil into marine water and was ordered to perform 320 hours of beach cleanup. Although free of criminal charges, Berry still faced a civil case from the state attorney general's office. That matter was not to be settled until January 1992, when the company agreed to a $3.2 million fine.