Marathon Oil Company, Appellant v. State of Alaska, Department of Natural Resources, Appellee

Summary

The court affirmed the superior court's decision upholding DNR's denial of Marathon's request to apply contract pricing retroactively to gas produced before its application. It held that the governing statute is ambiguous, that DNR's longstanding interpretation limiting contract pricing to future production has a reasonable statutory basis, and that the interpretation need not have been promulgated as a regulation. The court also held that Marathon received adequate notice and an opportunity to be heard, so its due process rights were not violated.