Oil giants BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell have reached a "binding settlement agreement" on their portion of a wide-ranging, five-year-old, multi-district class lawsuit over profits for gasoline and diesel sold in the US without adjusting costs for temperature, according to a court document reviewed Friday.
No details of the settlement were included in the brief document signed Wednesday by US District Judge Kathryn Vratil in Kansas City, Missouri.
And a trial remains scheduled to begin May 7 for other targets of the 2007 litigation who include primarily regional truck stops and independent fuel retailers in several states.
One source close to the case called the settlement a "breakthrough" for the oil companies to provide support to those retailers in the installation of automatic temperature control equipment.
In the brief order, Vratil noted that attorneys for the oil companies reported the agreement during a status conference Monday.
"Based on that representation, the Court severs plaintiffs' claims against these three defendants from the claims against the remaining defendants, which are set for trial on May 7, 2012," Vratil wrote in her order.
Titled the "Motor Fuel Temperature Sales Practices Litigation" on Vratil's court website, the case is a class action against motor fuel retailers in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Guam.
"Plaintiffs claim that because defendants sell motor fuel for a specified price per gallon without disclosing or adjusting for temperature expansion, they are liable under state law theories which include breach of contract, breach of warranty, fraud and consumer protection," according to the summary on the court's website.
In a series of stories in 2006, the Kansas City Star estimated that hot fuel costs consumers $2.3 billion annually, explaining that expansion of fuels in warmer months reduces the actual amount of energy delivered to buyers of retail gasoline.
"As a liquid, gasoline expands and contracts depending on temperature," the newspaper elaborated Friday in one of dozens of stories it has published in its ongoing investigation of the controversy.
"Put simply," the Star article summarized the basics in the litigation, "every degree over the 60-degree standard diminishes the energy a 231-cubic-inch gallon delivers to the nation's fleet of cars, trucks, boats, buses and heavy equipment -- and forces drivers to consume more and thus pay more for fuel."
Details of the settlement with the oil companies are expected to emerge soon providing more information about their role in resolving the dispute, according to a source close to the litigation.
No one was immediately available from the oil companies to comment on the judge's announcement of a deal.
