Houston Attorney John Kim of The Kim Law Firm Representing Plaintiffs Against Marathon Oil Over Unpaid West African Oil Royalties

HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Houston attorney John Kim of The Kim Law Firm is representing two plaintiffs against Marathon Oil Company based on the company's alleged failure to pay royalties from a highly lucrative oil and gas field in West Africa.

Mr. Kim represents Janis Frank Henry and Barbara Frank Sharman, the daughters of noted geologist/geophysicist G.W. Frank, who assisted in the development of the Alba oil and gas field located in and near Equatorial Guinea. Ms. Henry and Ms. Sharman claim that Marathon has disregarded a binding agreement originally established by their father and Joe C. Walter, Jr., the oil and gas entrepreneur who originally developed the Alba field. In 1991, Mr. Walter entered into an agreement with Mr. Frank and other consultants to protect their interests in the project "in the event that Walter's interests in the Alba Prospect would ever be bought out by larger oil and gas corporations."

In 1995, Mr. Walter's interests in Equatorial Guinea were sold to CMS Energy, which later sold them to Houston-based Marathon in 2002. Mr. Frank died in 2000.

According to the daughters' claim, which was filed on Aug. 12 in Harris County District Court, the Alba field "has proven to be fabulously successful for Marathon."

"By shortchanging Frank, Marathon and the other Defendants have gained, and will gain in the future, many millions of dollars in additional ill-begotten profits," the lawsuit says.

Ms. Henry and Ms. Sharman are intervenors in Carr P. Dishroon v. Marathon Oil Company, No. 2008-40057, which includes similar claims against Marathon on behalf of another consultant to Mr. Walter. That lawsuit includes claims that Marathon underpays, or doesn't pay at all, on condensate collected at onshore plants; fails to pay royalties on the processed gas sold to third parties; doesn't pay a fair market gas price; and takes improper tax deductions.

"Companies like Marathon would be nothing without the hard work and expertise provided by men like G.W. Frank," says Mr. Kim. "For them to try to back out of their legal agreements, as they are now, is shameful and needs to be corrected."

The Kim Law Firm has recovered more than half a billion dollars for clients through aggressive litigation. Founder and veteran trial attorney John Kim has earned the respect of his clients and peers in Texas, throughout the U.S. and internationally. For more information, please visit TheKimLawFirm.com.

For more information on the lawsuit against Marathon, please contact Mary Flood at 800-559-4534 or [email protected].

SOURCE The Kim Law Firm