Mobil Natural Gas, Inc., and Mobil Exploration & Producing U.S., Inc. (which merged into and became subsidiaries of ExxonMobil in 1999), agreed to pay $32.2 million to resolve claims that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and American Indian leases. The Mobil companies are alleged to have systematically under reported the value of natural gas taken from the leases from 1988 to 1999 and, consequently, paid less royalties than owed to the federal government and various American Indian tribes. (See related ChevronTexaco Corporation instance, “U.S. ex rel. Wright v. Chevron (Underpayment of Natural Gas Royalties)”.)