Kerr-McGee

The company later known as Kerr-McGee was founded in 1929 as Anderson & Kerr Drilling Company by Oklahoma businessman-politician Robert S. Kerr (1896-1963) and oil driller James L. Anderson. When Dean A. McGee (1904-1989), a former chief geologist for Phillips Petroleum, joined the firm in 1946, it changed its name to Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, Incorporated. The company initially focused mostly on off-shore oil exploration and production, being one of the first companies to use drillships in the Gulf of Mexico,{{cite news |title=Kerr-McGee Natural Gas STAR Case Study Series|url=http://www.epa.gov/gasstar/pdf/kerrmcgee.pdf |publisher=United States Environmental Protection Agency }} and later one of the first companies to use a Spar platform in the area.

With the acquisition of the Oryx Energy Company of Dallas, Texas in 1999, Kerr-McGee gained more onshore assets, as well as significant assets in several foreign areas in Algeria and western Kazakhstan. Later acquisitions of HS Resources and Westport Resources Corp. established the base of operations in Denver, Colorado and added large resource areas throughout the Rocky Mountains.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

Until 2005, Kerr-McGee had two major divisions: chemical and oil-related. On November 21, 2005, its chemical division, based in Oklahoma City, was sold as an IPO, Tronox, thereby making Oklahoma City home to the administrative side of Kerr-McGee, while exploration and production management was located in Denver and Houston.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} Through acquisitions, for a time Kerr-McGee marketed products under the Deep Rock, Coast, Power, and Peoples brands in addition to its own. It also marketed Blue Velvet motor oil, a multiviscosity grade with a blue dyed anti-wear additive.

On June 23, 2006, Anadarko Petroleum, based in The Woodlands, Texas, purchased Kerr-McGee in an all-cash transaction totaling $16.5 billion plus the assumption of $2.6 billion in debt. Kerr-McGee shareholders approved the offer on August 10, 2006, and Kerr-McGee ceased to exist independently. All operations with the exception of Tronox which had been spun off in 2005 moved out of Oklahoma. Within a few years, the top positions at Anadarko had been filled by Kerr-McGee employees and many long-time Anadarko employees had left or been removed from the company, making the merger between Anadarko and Kerr-McGee a "wag the dog" transaction.

File:Kerr-McGee Uranium mill, Grants NM.jpg.]]

File:Sulfuric acid plant at the Kerr McGee Uranium mill.jpg

{{main|Kerr-McGee Corp. v. Navajo Tribe}}

Kerr-McGee v. Navajo Tribe, 471 U.S. 195 (1985), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that an Indian tribe is not required to obtain the approval of the Secretary of the Interior in order to impose taxes on non-tribal persons or entities doing business on a reservation.

In 1978, the Navajo Tribal Council passed two tax ordinances.Wilkinson, Charles F. (1996), [http://www.law2.byu.edu/lawreview4/archives/1996/2/1996-02%20Wilkinson.pdf Home Dance, the Hopi, and Black Mesa Coal: Conquest and Endurance in the American Southwest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110232518/http://www.law2.byu.edu/lawreview4/archives/1996/2/1996-02%20Wilkinson.pdf |date=2013-11-10 }}, 1996 BYU L. R. 449, Brigham Young Univ. The first was a tax of 3% on leaseholds (such as mineral rights) and the second was a 5% tax on business activity.

Kerr-McGee held substantial mineral rights on the Navajo Nation and filed a lawsuit in the federal district court seeking an injunction to prohibit the tribe from collecting the tax. Kerr-McGee argued that any tax of non-Indians by a tribe required approval by the Secretary of the Interior and the district court agreed, granting the injunction. The tribe appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit overruled the district court, finding no federal statute or regulation required such approval. Kerr-McGee then appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari and agreed to hear the case.Kerr-McGee v. Navajo Tribe, {{ussc|source=f|471|195|1985}}.{{cite court|litigants=Kerr-McGee v. Navajo Tribe |vol=731 |reporter=F.2d |opinion=597 |court=9th Cir. |date=1984 |url=http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/731/597/30389/ }} The court decided unanimously that the Navajo Nation had the right to tax Kerr-McGee because tribal authority to tax had already been recognized, and because no federal law prohibited exercising tribal sovereignty in enacting a tax.

Main oil and gas operations in the US were the Mid-Continent, Rocky Mountains, onshore Louisiana, and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Main offices were located in downtown Denver and the Greenspoint area of Houston.

Corporate headquarters were located in Downtown Oklahoma City. In the 1970s the company had a forest products division, and mineral mining in New Mexico, Arizona, and Idaho, and coal mining in Wyoming and Illinois. Most of the U.S operations were on land owned by the U.S. government (i.e. Bureau of Land Management, National Forest) and the Navajo Indian tribe.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}} Kerr-McGee owned a potash operation in California from 1974 to 1990.

Image:Sandridgetower_6_20_2009m.jpg, a prominent skyscraper in downtown Oklahoma City, served as Corporate Headquarters.]]

Kerr-McGee had exploration, development, and production projects in Bohai Bay, China, near Beijing. Additional exploration was planned for the South China Sea. These operations were run primarily from an office in Beijing.

Kerr-McGee and its subsidiaries formerly operated in western Kazakhstan, western Australia, Brazil, Trinidad, Benin, the United Kingdom and several other more minor locations around the world at various times.

Kerr-McGee received international criticism for undertaking exploration for hydrocarbon resources offshore the Moroccan controlled area of the disputed territory of Western Sahara in 2001. In 2003, one of Norway's main private investment funds, Skagen Vekst, sold their €3.6 million stake in the oil company, referring to ethical problems surrounding Kerr-McGee's engagement in Western Sahara.{{cite news | title=Divestments from Kerr-McGee over Western Sahara engagement | url=http://www.afrol.com/articles/15084 | publisher=Afrol News | date=2004-12-21 | access-date=2010-10-01}} In May 2005, despite the number of growing protests, the company renewed the contract signed with Moroccan authorities until October.{{cite news | title=Kerr-McGee renueva su búsqueda de hidrocarburos en Sáhara Occidental | url=http://www.afrol.com/es/articulos/16284 | publisher=Afrol News | date=2005-05-06 | access-date=2015-01-23|language=es|archive-date=2008-10-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007192429/http://www.afrol.com/es/articulos/16284}} In June 2005, the Norwegian government sold the $52.7 million it had invested in the company through the Government Petroleum Fund (one of the biggest investment funds of the world), characterizing Kerr-McGee's contract in Western Sahara as having "particularly serious violations of fundamental ethical norms".{{cite news | title=Recommendation on Exclusion from the Government Petroleum Fund's Investment Universe of the Company Kerr-McGee Corporation | url=http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fin/tema/statens_pensjonsfond/ansvarlige-investeringer/tilradninger-og-brev-fra-etikkradet/Recommendation-on-Exclusion-from-the-Government-Petroleum-Funds-Investment-Universe-of-the-Company-Kerr-McGee-Corporation.html?id=419582 | publisher= Ministry of Finance of Norway | date=2005-04-12 | access-date=2010-10-01}} That same month, another two Norwegian private investment funds (Storebrand and KLP) sold their participations on Kerr-McGee, €1 million and €1.45 million respectively.{{cite news | title=Inversoras venden acciones Kerr-McGee por conflicto Sahara

| url=http://www.wsrw.org/index.php?cat=194&art=1484&searchString=kerr+mcgee&shw=3&sy=&sm=&stm=&page=1&mto=0 | publisher= Western Sahara Resources Watch (EFE) | date=2005-06-30 | access-date=2010-10-01|language=es}} On May 2, 2006, the company declared its intention to no longer drill off the coast of the Western Sahara, by not renewing the contract signed with Morocco.{{cite news | title=Last oil company withdraws from Western Sahara | url=http://www.afrol.com/articles/19029 | publisher=Afrol News | date=2006-05-02 | access-date=2010-10-01}}

On June 14, 2004, Bobby Maxwell, a senior government auditor for the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service ("MMS"), filed suit in federal court on behalf of the U.S. Government against Kerr-McGee, under the whistle-blowing provisions of the False Claims Act ("FCA").31 U.S.C. § 3729. (See also [https://www.pbs.org/now/shows/319/index.html The Royalty Treatment. NOW | PBS, May 11, 2007, retrieved April 22, 2015].) In the suit, Mr. Maxwell alleged that, based on the information uncovered during his audit, "Kerr-McGee knowingly made false and/or fraudulent statements on the monthly royalty reports submitted to the MMS and 'understated and underpaid' its federal royalties."Maxwell v. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp., 486 F.Supp.2d 1217, 1221 (D.Colo.2007) In January 2007, after a full trial on the issues, Kerr-McGee was found by a jury to have failed to report earnings, and thus, under-paying royalties due to the U.S. government. The jury award damages in the amount of US$7.6 million. Despite the jury's verdict, however, before entering judgment, the court reconsidered an earlier Motion for Summary Judgement filed by Kerr-McGee and reversed its prior holding, this time determining that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear the case at all.Maxwell, 486 F.Supp.2d at 1222 The case was appealed by Mr. Maxwell, and on September 10, 2008, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling of the lower court, remanding it back for further proceedings.U.S. ex rel. Maxwell v. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp., 540 F.3d 1180 (10th Cir.2008) On September 16, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Marcia S. Krieger of Colorado ordered Kerr-McGee to pay treble damages, or almost $23 million. As a whistle-blower under the FCA, Mr. Maxwell would be entitled to twenty-five percent of the amount recovered for the government, or approximately $5.7 million. Per Mr. Maxwell, however, most of the money awarded would go to pay the legal fees associated with his almost-10-year fight to force Kerr-McGee to change its deceptive practices and pay what it owed to the public.{{Cite news |last=Lichtblau |first=Eric |date=2010-09-20 |title=Oil Company Fined in Royalty Case |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/business/energy-environment/21whistle.html |access-date=2023-02-22 |issn=0362-4331}}

It is alleged that Karen Silkwood was negligently or purposefully contaminated with plutonium while working at Kerr-McGee's Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site and investigating safety violations at the plant. Her activism and November 1974 death were the subject of the 1983 film Silkwood. In a civil suit against Kerr-McGee by the Estate of Karen Silkwood, Judge Frank Theis told the jury, "If you find that the damage to the person or property of Karen Silkwood resulted from the operation of this plant, Kerr-McGee is liable."Rashke, Richard L. The Killing of Karen Silkwood: The Story Behind the Kerr-McGee Plutonium Case. 2d ed. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2000. {{ISBN|0-8014-8667-X}}

The jury rendered its verdict of $505,000 in damages and $10,000,000 in punitive damages. On appeal, the judgment was reduced to $5,000."Silkwood Award Is Reversed." Associated Press. December 12, 1981. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court restored the original verdict (Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp.{{Broken anchor|date=2024-09-20|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=Karen Silkwood#Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee|reason= The anchor (Estate of Karen Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee) has been deleted.}}, 464 U.S. 283 (1984))."High Court Clears Award in Karen Silkwood Case." New York Times. January 12, 1984. The suit was headed for retrial when Kerr-McGee settled out of court in 1986 for $1.38 million, admitting no liability."Business Digest." New York Times. August 23, 1986. Gerry Spence, the noted trial lawyer from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, represented the Karen Silkwood estate in this litigation.

Kerr-McGee is at least partially responsible for large scale perchlorate water contamination first discovered in the Lower Colorado River in 1997; It stemmed from land used by a facility in Henderson, Nevada which was owned and operated by Kerr-McGee Chemical LLC (as of 2011 Tronox LLC), where perchlorate was produced from 1945 until 1998.{{cite web|url=http://ndep.nv.gov/bca/perchlorate05.htm|publisher=Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources|title=Southern Nevada Perchlorate Clean Up Project|date=16 August 2011|access-date=13 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523162748/http://ndep.nv.gov/bca/perchlorate05.htm|archive-date=23 May 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}

In May 2007, Kerr-McGee Corp spent $18 million on pollution controls in the first comprehensive settlement under the Clean Air Act that reduced harmful emission and conserved natural gas at production facilities across Utah and Colorado. The settlement addressed violations discovered at several of Kerr-McGee's natural gas compressor stations located on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation near Vernal, Utah, and in the Denver Julesburg Basin near Weld County, Colorado. In addition to implementing pollution controls, the agreement required Kerr-McGee to pay a $200,000 penalty, and spend $250,000 on environmental projects to benefit the areas in which violations occurred.[http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/2467feca60368729852573590040443d/0ff61e4e98efe594852572de0069cfcc!OpenDocument Kerr-McGee Reaches Major Settlement on Natural Gas Production in Colorado and Utah | Newsroom | United States Environmental Protection Agency|U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] In July 2005, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) settled with Kerr McGee Chemical in Henderson, Nevada that required the company to pay $55,392 penalty to resolve air permitting violations at its facility that began in 1993. The EPA cited Kerr-McGee for failing to install carbon monoxide emissions controls required under the Clean Air Act when it installed a new open hearth furnace in 1993. The company spent $4.8 million to install proper pollution controls at the facility reducing total carbon monoxide emission by 115 tons per year, an 80% reduction from previous levels.[http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/2dd7f669225439b78525735900400c31/9e805fced84fff32852570d8005e1779!OpenDocument U.S. EPA settles air pollution case with Kerr-McGee in Henderson, Nev. | Newsroom | United States Environmental Protection Agency|U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]

In a 2014 landmark legal case, Anadarko was ordered to pay between $5.1 billion and $14.1 billion for environmental liabilities resulting from Kerr-McGee's fraudulent asset transfers in 2005, which left the company’s toxic contamination cleanup responsibilities unresolved. This ruling, one of the largest in U.S. bankruptcy and environmental enforcement history, mandated the company to fund extensive environmental remediation efforts across multiple contaminated sites in the U.S. Sreenivasan, Hari. "Unpacking the Largest Environmental Settlement in U.S. History." PBS NewsHour, April 6, 2014. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/taking-closer-look-largest-environmental-settlement-u-s-history.

Kerr-McGee was involved in several nuclear endeavors.Sources:

• {{cite web|title=Plutonium Finishing Plant|url=http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf|publisher=Hanford / US Govt|access-date=2009-01-20|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926023643/http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf|archive-date=2006-09-26}}
• {{cite web|title=Plutonium Finishing Plant|url=http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf|publisher=Hanford / US Govt|access-date=2009-01-20|author1=Lini, D.C.|author2=L. H. Rodgers|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926023643/http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf|archive-date=2006-09-26}}
• {{cite news|last=Diamond|first=Stuart|title=Lethal Acid is Product of Chemical that Leaked|newspaper=New York Times| date= 6 January 1986}}
• {{cite web | url=http://www.epa.gov/R5Super/npl/illinois/ILD980824031.htm | title=NPL Fact Sheet, Kerr-McGee (Sewage Treatment Plant) | date=July 2009 | access-date=2009-10-02 | author=U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | author-link=United States Environmental Protection Agency }}
• {{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/sequoyah-fuels-corporation-sfc-.html | title=Sequoyah Fuels Corporation | publisher=US NRC | date=2009-04-16 | access-date=2009-10-02 }}
• {{cite journal | title=The Sequoyah Corporation Fuels Release and the Church Rock Spill: Unpublicized Nuclear Releases in American Indian Communities | publisher=NIH.gov (electronic) | date=September 2007 | author=Brugge, Doug, MS, Jamie L. deLemos, MS, and Cat Bui, BS | journal=American Journal of Public Health | volume=97 | issue=9 | pages=1595–600 | doi=10.2105/AJPH.2006.103044 | pmc=1963288 | pmid=17666688}}
• {{cite web | url=http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/kerr/ker_p1.html | title=Public Health Assessment Kerr-McGee Refinery Site | publisher=Centers for Disease Control | access-date=2009-10-01 }}
• {{cite journal | title=Design and use of plasma arc cutting equipment | publisher=Sequoyah Fuels Corporation / OSTI.gov | year=1994 | doi=10.2172/10151409 | osti=10151409 | url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1320155/ }}
• {{cite web | url=http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/434121 | title=Quivira Mining Company et al vs. US EPA | date=1984-03-02 | access-date=2009-10-03 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In 1952 Kerr-McGee bought the Navajo Uranium Mining Company, including an interest in a number of mines. It also bought an ore buying station at Shiprock, New Mexico. In 1953 it built a processing plant (called the Shiprock Mill) near the buying station. In 1963 the mines and mill were sold to the Vanadium Corporation of America.{{cite encyclopedia | url = http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/N/NU001.html | access-date = 2009-10-02 | title = NUCLEAR POWER | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture | author = O'Dell, Larry | publisher = Oklahoma Historical Society / Oklahoma State University | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100727213314/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/N/NU001.html | archive-date = 2010-07-27 | url-status = dead }}{{cite web | url=http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/shiprock_title1.html | title=Shiprock Mill Site | publisher=Energy Information Administration | date=2005-10-09 | access-date=2009-10-02 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091016230005/http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/shiprock_title1.html | archive-date=2009-10-16 | url-status=dead}}

Later a partnership with other companies was formed called the Kermac Nuclear Fuels Corporation. In 1957-58 this partnership built a uranium mill near Grants, New Mexico and Ambrosia Lake. In 1983 the mill was taken over by a new Kerr-McGee subsidiary called the Quivira Mining Corporation. Quivira was sold to Rio Algom in 1989.{{cite web | url=http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/staff/mclemore/documents/07-111_18.pdf | title=Uranium Mining Resources in New Mexico | publisher=SME Annual Meeting | date=February 2007 | access-date=2009-10-03 | author=V. McLemore}}{{cite web | url=http://www.oha.doe.gov/cases/nuclear/vea0007.htm | title=DECISION AND ORDER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY | publisher=US DOE | date=1997-03-13 | access-date=2009-10-03 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090902110605/http://www.oha.doe.gov/cases/nuclear/vea0007.htm | archive-date=2009-09-02 | url-status=dead}}{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,891393,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019184954/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,891393,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=October 19, 2011 | title=ATOMIC ENERGY: Uranium Jackpot | date=1957-09-30 | access-date=2009-10-07 | magazine=Time}}

Kerr-McGee purchased the Lakeview Mining Company of Lake County, Oregon in 1961. The plant was shut down in late 1960 or 1961 and sold to Atlantic Richfield in 1968.{{Cite web |title=OLM- Lakeview Oregon Disposal Site factsheet |work=lm.doe.gov |date=November 2018 |access-date=6 July 2020 |url= https://www.lm.doe.gov/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=1776}}{{Cite web |title=Lakeview Mill Site |last=Ho |first=Clifford K. |work=sandia.gov |access-date=6 July 2020 |url= https://www.sandia.gov/caps/lakeview.htm}}

From about 1962-1966 Kerr-McGee processed uranium at its oil refinery site in Cushing, Oklahoma. It received licenses in 1962 for processing uranium and thorium, and in 1963 for enriched uranium. In 1966 it stopped production. An attempt was made to move all regulated nuclear material to the company's new Cimarron facility at Crescent, OK. Cleanups were attempted in 1966, 1972, 1979–82, and the 1990s{{cite web | url=http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/kerr/ker_p1.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990824233536/http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/kerr/ker_p1.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=August 24, 1999 | title=PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT KERR-MCGEE REFINERY SITE | publisher=Centers for Disease Control | access-date=2009-10-01}}

{{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/kerr-mcgee-corporations-cushing-refinery-site.html | title=Kerr-McGee Corporation's Cushing Refinery Site | publisher=US NRC | access-date=2009-10-02}}{{Cite web |title=Feasibility Study of Economics and Performance of Geothermal Power Generation at the Lakeview Uranium Mill Site in Lakeview, Oregon |author=Michael Hillesheim and Gail Mosey |work=nrel.gov |date=November 2013 |access-date=6 July 2020 |url= https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/60251.pdf}}

In about 1965 Kerr-McGee started producing uranium fuel at its Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site. This was located near the Cimarron River and Crescent, Oklahoma. From 1973 to 1975 it would also produce mixed Plutonium-Uranium Oxide (MOX) 'driver fuel pins' for use in the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford Site in Washington State. The plant shut down in 1976.Sources:

• {{cite web|title=Plutonium Finishing Plant|url=http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf|publisher= Hanford / US Govt|access-date = 2009-01-20|url-status = dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060926023643/http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf| archive-date = 2006-09-26}}
• {{cite web|title=Plutonium Finishing Plant|url=http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf|publisher=Hanford / US Govt|access-date=2009-01-20|author1 = Lini, D.C.|author2 = L. H. Rodgers|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926023643/http://www.hanford.gov/rl/uploadfiles/FACT_PFP_0606.pdf|archive-date=2006-09-26}}
• {{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/kerr-mcgee-cimarron-corporation-former-fuel-fabrication-facility.html | title=Kerr-McGee - Cimarron | publisher=US NRC | date=April 2009 | access-date=2009-10-01}}

In 1967 Kerr-McGee bought the American Potash and Chemical Company, which owned the Rare Earths Facility in West Chicago, Illinois. This facility produced thorium, radium, and uranium by acid leaching of monazite sands and other ores. It stopped work in 1973.{{cite web | url=http://www.epa.gov/R5Super/npl/illinois/ILD980824031.htm | title=NPL Fact Sheet, KERR-MCGEE (SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT) | date=July 2009 | access-date=2009-10-02 | author=U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | author-link=United States Environmental Protection Agency}}{{cite web | url=http://openjurist.org/75/f3d/536/general-atomics-v-united-states-nuclear-regulatory-commission | title=75 F3d 536 General Atomics v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission | publisher=openjurist.org | date=1995-10-17 | volume=F3d | issue=75 | page=536 | access-date=2009-10-02 | last1=Appeals | first1=United States Court of | last2=Circuit | first2=Ninth }}{{cite web | url=http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/438723 | title=PACIFIC ENGINEERING & PRODUCTION COMPANY OF NEVADA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KERR-McGEE CORPORATION | publisher=atlaw / US 10th Circuit | access-date=2009-10-06 | year=1977}}

In 1968 the company started construction on what would become the Sequoyah Fuels Corporation plant in Gore, Oklahoma. In 1970 the plant started turning yellowcake uranium into uranium hexafluoride. In 1987 it began producing depleted uranium tetrafluoride using depleted uranium hexafluoride as input. In 1988 SFC was sold to General Atomics. In late November 1993 production ceased after a stuck valve in the processing plant stuck open and caused an uncontrolled reaction. The uncontrolled reaction resulted in a large visible cloud leaving the plant. Production ceased immediately and the plant operations were suspended to never resume.Sources:

• {{cite news|last=Diamond|first=Stuart|title=Lethal Acid is Product of Chemical that Leaked|newspaper=New York Times| date= 6 January 1986}}
• {{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/sequoyah-fuels-corporation-sfc-.html | title=Sequoyah Fuels Corporation | publisher=US NRC | date=2009-04-16 | access-date=2009-10-02}}
• {{cite web | url=http://openjurist.org/75/f3d/536/general-atomics-v-united-states-nuclear-regulatory-commission | title=75 F3d 536 General Atomics v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission | publisher=openjurist.org | date=1995-10-17 | volume=F3d | issue=75 | page=536 | access-date=2009-10-02| last1=Appeals | first1=United States Court of | last2=Circuit | first2=Ninth }}
• {{cite journal | title=The Sequoyah Corporation Fuels Release and the Church Rock Spill: Unpublicized Nuclear Releases in American Indian Communities | publisher=NIH.gov (electronic) | date=September 2007 | author=Brugge, Doug, MS, Jamie L. deLemos, MS, and Cat Bui, BS | journal=American Journal of Public Health | volume=97 | issue=9 | pages=1595–600 | doi=10.2105/AJPH.2006.103044 | pmc=1963288 | pmid=17666688}}
• {{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1888/sr1888-intro-chaptr11.pdf | title=Environmental Impact Statement for the Reclamation of the Sequoyah Fuels Corporation Site in Gore, Oklahoma, Final Report | publisher=US NRC | date=May 2008 | access-date=2009-10-03}}
• {{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/orders/2004/2004-02cli.html | title=CLI-04-02 MEMORANDUM AND ORDER | publisher=US NRC | access-date=2009-10-03 | year=2004}}

In 1956 Kerr-McGee formed the Kermac Nuclear Fuels Corporation in partnership with Anderson Development Corp, and Pacific Uranium Mines Co. It was active in New Mexico.

Some time in the 1970s, the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation was formed. In 1983 it split into the Quivira Mining Corporation and Sequoyah Fuels Corporation. Quivira got the Ambrosia Lake, NM mine, while Sequoyah Fuels took over the Sequoyah plant in Gore, OK, as well as the Cimarron plant in Crescent, OK. Sequoyah was sold to General Atomics in 1988.[http://openjurist.org/75/f3d/536/general-atomics-v-united-states-nuclear-regulatory-commission General Atomics vs NRC, 1995] and Quivira was sold to Rio Algom in 1989.{{Cite report |url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1320155/m2/1/high_res_d/10151409.pdf |title=Design and use of plasma APC cutting equipment |date=1994-05-01 |publisher=Sequoyah Fuels Corp., Oklahoma City, OK (United States) |issue=DOE/RL/10382–1 |doi=10.2172/10151409 |language=English}}(technically, GA owned Sequoyah Holding Corporation, which owned Sequoyah Fuels International, which owned Sequoyah Fuels). See [http://openjurist.org/75/f3d/536/general-atomics-v-united-states-nuclear-regulatory-commission General Atomics vs NRC, 1995], footnote 1

The Cimarron Corporation was a subdivision that took control of the Cimarron plant in 1988. When Tronox was spun off in 2006, it would get ownership of Cimarron Corporation and responsibility for the plant as well.{{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/kerr-mcgee-cimarron-corporation-former-fuel-fabrication-facility.html | title=Kerr-McGee - Cimarron | publisher=US NRC | date=April 2009 | access-date=2009-10-01}}

Kerr-McGee bought the American Potash and Chemical Company in 1967, including its Rare Earths Facility that processed uranium and thorium. AMPOT became Kerr-McGee Chemical Company around 1970 or 1974. In 2005 this became Tronox. Tronox became independent in 2006, a few months before Kerr-McGee was sold to Anadarko Petroleum. Tronox later went bankrupt, blaming in part the environmental liabilities inherited from KMC. In 2009 purchasers of Tronox filed a class action lawsuit against Anadarko for having allegedly misled investors.Sources:

• {{cite web | url=http://www.icis.com/Articles/2009/05/13/9216003/us-anadarko-denies-role-in-bankrupt-tronox-fraud-lawsuit.html | title=Anadarko denies role in bankrupt Tronox fraud lawsuit | publisher=ICIS / Reed Business Information Ltd | date=May 2009 | access-date=2009-10-06 | author=Al Greenwood}}
• {{cite web | url=http://www.tronox.com/ir/faq_ir.htm | title=Tronox FAQ | publisher=Tronox | access-date=2009-10-06 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923154559/http://www.tronox.com/ir/faq_ir.htm | archive-date=2009-09-23 | url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web | url=http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases07/NRD-lawsuits-07/Federal-Creosote-Complaint.pdf | title=NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION and THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE NEW JERSEY SPILL COMPENSATION FUND v TRONOX et al | publisher=nj.gov | date=2007-06-05 | access-date=2009-10-07}}

In the US, nuclear companies must get licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Kerr-McGee licenses follow:

• SNM-928 - Cimarron - uranium fuel fabrication
• SNM-1174 - Cimarron - mixed oxide fuel (MOX) fabrication - ?-1993
• STA-583 - Rare Earths Facility
• SMB-664 - Cushing refinery - uranium and thorium. 1962-1966{{cite web | url = http://orise.orau.gov/ieav/survey-projects/pubs/CUS_MAR.pdf | title = FINAL STATUS SURVEY | author = Abelquist, E.W. | publisher = US NRC / Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education | date = July 1997 | access-date = 2009-10-02 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090814051855/https://orise.orau.gov/ieav/survey-projects/pubs/CUS_MAR.pdf | archive-date = 2009-08-14 | url-status = dead }}
• SNM-695 - Cushing refinery - enriched uranium. 1963-1966
• SNM-1999 - Cushing refinery - cleanup. 1993-2006
• SUB-1010 - Sequoyah{{cite web | url=https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1888/sr1888-intro-chaptr11.pdf | title=Environmental Impact Statement for the Reclamation of the Sequoyah Fuels Corporation Site in Gore, Oklahoma, Final Report | publisher=US NRC | date=May 2008 | access-date=2009-10-03}}
• SUA-1473 - Ambrosia Lake source materials license (currently managed by BHP) {{cite web |url=https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/uranium/rio-algom-ambrosia-lake.html |website=United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission|title=Rio Algom - Ambrosia Lake}}

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