Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OPINION FLANNERY, District Judge. This matter is before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment. Plaintiff Department of Energy (“DOE”) alleges that defendant Exxon Corporation (“Exxon”) from January 1975 to January 1981 violated federal two-tier oil price-control regulations by selling as higher-priced “new” oil what should properly have been sold as lower-priced “old” oil. DOE alleges Exxon overcharged crude oil purchasers by failing properly to establish a unit-wide base production control level — the basis for calculations of “new” and “old” oil — for the Hawkins Field Unit, which it operates near Hawkins, Texas. DOE asks that Exxon be ordered to pay into the United States Treasury the alleged amount of overcharges— some $895 million — with interest from the date of overcharge, and that Exxon be assessed civil penalties of about $38 million. In support of its cross-motion for summary judgment, Exxon argues that it is guilty of no overcharge because the rule DOE seeks to enforce against it is invalid as beyond the agency’s statutory authority, arbitrarily and capriciously applied; issued without proper procedure, and finally, in any event, not applicable before September 1, 1976. In opposition to DOE’s motion, Exxon argues that the regulations at issue, if valid, require the establishment of a unit base production control level only upon the occurrence of a “significant alteration in producing patterns”, which occurred at the Hawkins Field no earlier than March 1977 and which, in any event, presents a disputed question of fact which may not be resolved on a motion for summary judgment. For the reasons expressed below, plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is granted in part and denied in part. Defendant’s motion is denied. I. Background A. The Regulatory Framework In 1970 Congress passed the Economic Stabilization Act, Pub.L. No. 91-379, 84 Stat. 799, as amended 12 U.S.C. § 1904 note, authorizing the President to issue such orders as he felt appropriate in order to stabilize prices. In the summer of 1971 the President imposed wage and price controls and delegated their enforcement to the newly-created Cost of Living Council (“CLC”). During the next few years these controls were gradually phased out, but because prices of petroleum products continued to climb, the CLC in August 1973 promulgated regulations applicable only to the oil industry. 6 C.F.R. Part 150, Subpart L (1974) ; 38 Fed.Reg. 22,536 (1973). Just a few months later, after the Arab oil embargo had caused oil prices to jump sharply, Congress in November 1973 passed the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act (“EPAA”), Pub.L. No. 93-159, 87 Stat. 628, 15 U.S.C. § 751 et seq. (1976), requiring the promulgation of regulations within 15 days. EPAA § 4(a). In January 1974, the new Federal Energy Office (“FEO”) reissued the CLC price regulations, with only minor changes, at 10 C.F.R. Part 212, Subpart D (1975) , 39 Fed.Reg. 1924,1952 (1974) where they remained until the decontrol of petroleum prices in January 1981. The heart of the petroleum price regulations was the application to domestically produced crude oil of a two-tier pricing structure designed to further the twin goals of combatting inflation while encouraging new domestic oil production. Cities Services Co. v. FEA, 529 F.2d 1016, 1020 (Em. App.1975). Producers were required to sell “old” crude oil at the lower-tier price and were allowed to sell “new” crude oil at a higher price. 10 C.F.R. §§ 272.73, 212.74 (1975). Amounts of “old” and “new” oil were calculated by comparing current production at a given property to that property’s production in an earlier corresponding base period, its “base production control level” (“BPCL”). Any excess of current production above the BPCL could be sold as higher-priced new oil. All current production up to the BPCL, however, had to be sold as lower-priced old oil. While the regulations appear conceptually to be relatively straightforward, their application in some instances proved to be problematic. For example, the regulations required that a BPCL be established for every oil-producing “property.” 10 C.F.R. § 212.72 (1975). “Property” was defined as “the right which arises from a lease or from a fee interest to produce domestic crude petroleum.” Id. The question arose, which is now at the heart of this lawsuit, as to the proper method of calculating a BPCL for large, multilease tracts which during the base year had operated as independent, competing properties but which subsequent to 1972 had embarked upon the cooperative production process known as unitization. Did the regulations require that the BPCL for fields unitized after 1972 be established field-wide, by totalling the 1972 production of all properties which made up the unit, or could the BPCL be calculated on an individual, lease-by-lease basis? To address this issue, the Federal Energy Administration (“FEA”) in August 1975 issued Ruling 1975-15 interpreting the existing regulations. 40 Fed.Reg. 40,832 (1975). In Ruling 1975-15 the FEA emphasized that the property concept in the regulations was based on the right to produce crude oil, however arising, and on the need to ensure a meaningful comparison between current and base year production. Id. Accordingly, the FEA ruled that in the case of properties unitized after 1972, the producer was required to calculate a unit-wide BPCL by totalling the individual 1972 monthly production for each of the leases constituting the unit. Id. Lease-by-lease calculations were not allowed. Ruling 1975-15 sparked criticism from the oil industry that the unit BPCL requirement would discourage unitization and hence retard efforts to increase domestic production. See 41 Fed.Reg. 1564, 1569 (1976). Furthermore, in December 1975 Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (“EPCA”), Pub.L. No. 94-163, Title IV, 89 Stat. 871, 941 (1975), 15 U.S.C. §§ 757 et seq, which among other things directed the FEA to promulgate amendments to the oil price regulations which would stimulate domestic production while at the same time combatting inflation in the prices of petroleum products. EPCA § 401(a); S.Rep. No. 516, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 116-17, 120-21 (1975); U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News p. 1762. To achieve these sometimes conflicting goals, Congress directed the FEA to create different classifications of crude oil which would bear different prices. 15 U.S.C. § 757(a). The weighted average price per barrel was not to exceed $7.66. Id. To ensure that higher prices would reward only real increases in production, Congress provided specifically in Section 401(a) of the EPCA that no amendment to the regulation could allow the price of any old oil to increase above the existing ceiling, unless the President specifically found that such an amendment would give positive incentives for enhanced recovery techniques, or was necessary to take into account declining production at a property, and would likely result in production greater than what would have occurred in the absence of the amendment. EPCA § 401(a); 15 U.S.C. § 757(b)(2). “Old oil production” was defined in the EPCA as the average production of old oil, as defined in Section 212.72, at a particular property in the months of September, October, and November of 1975. 15 U.S.C. § 757(b)(3). In reaction to the industry criticism, and pursuant to the Congressional directives in the EPCA, the FEA in February 1976 amended the oil price regulations. 41 Fed. Reg. 4931 (1976). In response to the Congressional desire for increased production, the amendments addressed three different but overlapping objectives: to provide production incentives generally, to provide incentives for the maintenance of existing units, and to remove disincentives to prospective unitization. The FEA noted in the preamble to the amendments that production had so declined at older properties that producers could no longer realistically expect to boost volume above 1972 levels, thereby rendering ineffective the lure of higher new oil prices. Id. at 4932. Accordingly, the FEA first amended Section 212.72 to provide producers at all properties the option of choosing a more recent, and presumably lower, BPCL based on average old oil production in 1975, rather than 1972. Id. at 4933; see n. 3, supra. In the same spirit, the FEA eliminated all deficiencies which had accumulated prior to February 1, 1976. 41 Fed.Reg. at 4933. In effect, all properties could begin afresh with a new BPCL and a more realistic chance of producing new oil. Id. In addition, the FEA provided other incentives specifically for unitized properties. The first, applicable to both existing units and those to be formed on or after February 1, 1976, provided that Ruling 1975-15 was rescinded ab initio insofar as it required the unit operator to calculate a unit-wide BPCL as of the date of unitization. Id. at 4937. Instead, operators could continue to account for production on a lease-by-lease basis until enhanced recovery operations had begun or a significant alteration in producing patterns occurred within the unit. Id. The agency defined “enhanced recovery” as “any method of recovering crude oil in which part of the energy employed to move the crude oil through the reservoir is applied from extraneous sources by the injection of liquids or gases into the reservoir.” Id. at 4941. A definition of “significant alteration” proved more elusive. The FEA hinted that a significant alteration might occur before an enhanced recovery project had begun operating when “production from certain leases is reduced or discontinued in preparation for enhanced recovery operations.” Id. at 4937. Although the agency used the term “substantially altered” in its unit BPCL rule, it did not then formally define the term, choosing instead to issue a later Ruling to clarify its meaning. Id. Finally, to further encourage prospective unitization, the FEA enacted a new regulation applicable only to properties unitized after February 1, 1976. Id. at 4938. Such units could benefit, first, from a special rule allowing the BPCL to be calculated not on the basis of 1972 or 1975 production, but on the basis of average production in the twelve months preceding the calculation of a unit BPCL, i.e., preceding the date on which a significant alteration in producing patterns occurred or enhanced recovery operations were implemented. Id. In addition, the new regulation allowed a modified carryover of the stripper well lease exemption. See n. 4, supra. Producers at new units could sell at upper-tier prices a volume of crude oil equal to the average volume of stripper well lease production in the twelve months preceding the establishment of a unit BPCL. 41 Fed.Reg. at 4941. In August 1976 the FEA furnished the promised clarification of “significant alteration in producing patterns,” defining it as “the occurrence of either (1) the application of extraneous energy sources by the injection of liquids or gases into the reservoir, or (2) the increase of production allowables for any property that constitutes the unitized property.” 41 Fed.Reg. 36,172, 36,184 (1976). At the same time, to eliminate any remaining disincentives to prospective unitization, the FEA adopted a special rule, applicable to units formed after September 1, 1976, to ensure that once a unit BPCL was established there could be no decrease in the absolute volumes of new oil. Producers at such units would be allowed to sell at upper-tier prices a volume of oil equal to the average volume of new oil produced from the constituent properties in the twelve months preceding establishment of a unit BPCL. Id. at 36,182, 36,184. Finally, to dispel any remaining confusion as to the effect of the 1976 amendments to the regulations, the FEA in January 1977 issued Ruling 1977-2. 42 Fed.Reg. 4409 (1977) . In that Ruling the FEA made clear that the partial rescission in February 1976 of Ruling 1975-15 allowed operators of units formed before February 1, 1976 to wait, before establishing a unit BPCL, until a significant alteration in producing patterns occurred. Accounting for volumes of new and old oil after the 1976 amendments depended on when the unit was formed and when a significant alteration occurred or enhanced recovery operations were implemented. Section 212.72 applied to units formed before February 1, 1976, and those units received none of the incentives of Section 212.75. Units formed after February 1, 1976 received those benefits of Section 212.75 in effect at the time the operator had to calculate a unit BPCL — the special unit BPCL rule and imputed stripper oil provisions after February 1, 1976, and the provisions for imputed new oil after September 1, 1976. Id. at 4415; see n. 33, infra. B. Facts 1. Hawkins Field In December 1940, oil was discovered at the Hawkins Field, a ten thousand acre field twenty miles north of the town of Tyler in Wood County, Texas. By the late 1940’s, more than 200 individuals and companies produced oil from the Hawkins'field on more than 300 leases or tracts within the field. To promote rational exploitation of the field, the Texas Railroad’ Commission (“TRRC”) regulated the number of oil wells within the field, as well as the number of' barrels of Oil’ each well could produced termed production “allowables.” PX 5. In addition, the TRRC established a Maximum Efficient Rate (“MER”) of production for the field, a limit on the number of barrels which daily could be pumped from the field as a whole. Id. Still, by the mid-1960’s years of competitive exploitation had so drained the field that natural reservoir pressure declined, allowing the invasion of the crude oil bearing formations by water and the irrevocable loss of oil into the field’s original gas cap. Def.Mem. at 14-17. The Hawkins Field interest owners, led by Exxon, owner of two-thirds of the field’s production, concluded that this declining trend could be reversed, and the life of the field prolonged, only by means of a cooperative enhanced recovery project. Def.Mem. at 19. Based on engineering studies conducted at that time, the owners concluded that their enhanced recovery efforts would require the construction of a plant for the production of inert gas to be injected underground in order to increase reservoir pressure. Id. Before the program could be implemented, however, the field had to be unitized, in part so that the costs of the ipert gas plant could be spread among the owners, but also because the injection of gas would cause crude oil to flow underground across lease, lines. Id. at 20; see n. 6, supra. Accordingly, as early as 1969 Exxon began promoting unitization. Def. Opp. at. 6. Its efforts began in earnest in the summer of 1971. when it first met with the more than 300 other working interest owners of the field. Id. Negotiations with thpse owners, as well as the more than 2200 royalty interest owners; continued for the next few years and culminated in the signing of a Unit Agreement in 1974. DX Intro-4. The agreement named Exxon as unit operator, and provided for the sharing of costs of the inert gas enhanced recovery project. Id. art. 11.1. Production, too, was to be shared, according to a formula by which the imputed share attributed to each tract was based on estimates of the recoverable reserves under each tract. Id. arts. 5, 6. The TRRC approved the agreement on November 26, 1974, permitting Exxon to take the steps necessary to implement the enhanced recovery project, and providing Exxon with a unit production allowable as of the effective date of unitization, January 1, 1975. DX Intro. 2. Under prior TRRC orders, the production allowables of a shut-in well could be transferred only pro rata among the other wells at the Hawkins Field. The unit allowable, equal to the then existing MER of approximately 112,-000 barrels per day, would allow Exxon to transfer production among wells in the unit at will. At the same time that Exxon began its unitization efforts in 1969, it sought and received permission from the TRRC for an interim conservation project designed to curb the loss of crude oil at the field during the years needed to unitize the field and to implement the inert gas recovery project. The interim project called for the injection of up to 20 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, extraction of water, and increasing crude oil production. See PX 4 at 4. Accordingly, in its order approving the interim project, the TRRC authorized the increase of the Hawkins Field MER from 87,000 barrels per day to 112,000 barrels per day. PX 5. Shortly thereafter the rate of production was boosted up to the new, higher MER, and Exxon began injecting natural gas. It continued the natural gas injections throughout the succeeding years, beyond the effective date of unitization, until the completion of the inert gas plant. The inert gas plant, completed at a cost of some $57 million, commenced operations in March 1977. Def.Mem. at 4. 2. Exxon’s Application of the Oil Pnce Regulations at Hawkins Field As noted above, the CLC in August 1973 promulgated the initial oil price regulations. Those regulations required the calculations of a BPCL for each “property.” “Property” was defined as “the right which arises from a lease or from a fee interest to produce domestic crude petroleum.” At the time the CLC regulations were promulgated, Exxon already operated several multilease units. Consequently, Exxon had to determine how the regulations would apply to those units. In the fall of 1973 Exxon issued instructions to its employees to treat each unit as a single “property” under the regulations with a single, unit BPCL. PX 46. Indeed, Exxon provided specific instructions for units which, as would be the case of Hawkins Field, were formed after 1972, the base year designated in the regulations for the calculation of the BPCL. For such units, Exxon instructed its employees that: To arrive at the base production control level for the unit, sum by individual months the determined ... base production control level for each accounting lease ... contributed to the unit. Id. at 7. In accordance with those instructions, Exxon applied an aggregated, unit BPCL at units it operated in Texas, California, Alabama and Florida. PX 76. Exxon departed from its prior practice, however, at the Hawkins Field unit. In February 1974, Mr. Sidney J. Reso, Production Manager of Exxon’s East Texas Division and supervisor of the effort to unitize Hawkins Field, suggested in a memorandum to his superiors that old and new oil at the Hawkins Field unit be calculated on a lease-by-lease, rather than a unit basis. PX 56. To do otherwise, Mr. Reso warned, would result upon unitization in an 80% reduction in the amount of new, released and stripper oil to be claimed by prospective unit participants. Id. In the spring of 1974 a task force was formed at Exxon to study Mr. Reso’s suggestion. Def.Opp. at 17. That task force solicited the views of Exxon’s in-house counsel as to the legality of Mr. Reso’s suggestion under the regulations. On August 8,1974, Mr. Fred W. File, an attorney in Exxon’s legal department, issued a three-page opinion concluding that Mr. Reso’s proposal would be acceptable under then applicable FEA regulations. PX 77. Mr. File identified the purpose of the regulations' two-tier pricing system as being to promote additional recovery of crude oil. Id. at 2. The application of a unit BPCL to the Hawkins Field unit would result, as Mr. Reso had noted, in a reduction in the amount of new and released oil which unit participants would be able to claim. Such a result, Mr. File concluded, was inconsistent with the regulations’ purpose and therefore was “clearly not within [their] intent.” Id. Mr. File qualified his opinion, however, by noting that “FEA regulations are subject to frequent interpretations and revisions” and that sale of oil from the unit would be controlled by regulations in effect on the date of sale. Id. at 3. Nevertheless, he concluded, it would be appropriate to advise other Hawkins Field interest owners that lease-by-lease calculations would be acceptable under the regulations then in effect. Id. Within a few weeks of the issuance of Mr. File’s opinion, Exxon so notified the prospective Hawkins Field unit participants. When Hawkins Field was formally unitized on January 1, 1975, and in the many months thereafter, Exxon did in fact apply individual, lease-by-lease BPCL calculations. Recognizing that the restructuring of fields after 1972, such as by unitization, raised certain questions under the regulations, the FEA in August 1975 issued Ruling 1975-15, which made explicit the regulations’ requirement that a unit BPCL, equal to the sum of the BPCL’s of the constituent properties, be calculated and applied to every unit as of the date of unitization. Exxon representatives joined in the chorus of industry criticism of Ruling 1975-15 and met on several occasions in the fall of 1975 with various FEA officials. On November 24, 1975, Mr. File, the author of the August 1974 legal opinion to Mr. Reso, met with FEA General Counsel Michael Butler and presented him with written comments criticizing Ruling 1975-15 as creating insurmountable disincentives to unitization, and asking for its modification or clarification. DX 1-3. Three weeks later Mr. Butler informed Mr. File that the FEA was not then considering modification or rescission of Ruling 1975-15, but that the FEA intended shortly to initiate a rule making proceeding to address the special problems associated with enhanced recovery projects at unitized fields. DX Opp. CS-44. On January 6,1976, the FEA published a notice of such a rule making, advancing the proposals which were eventually embodied in the February 1976 amendments to the oil price regulations. In its comments on the proposed regulations, Exxon embraced several of the FEA proposals, but suggested that the provision for lease-by-lease calculation of exempt oil should be extended for two years after formation of the unit or until implementation of the injection operations of an enhanced recovery project. PX 188 at 9. Moreover, to prevent the dissolution of existing units, Exxon requested that the same rules be applied to units formed before February 1, 1976. Id. Instead, the FEA in the February amendments chose to apply only some of the newly created incentives to preexisting units, and provided that new Section 212.75 would apply only prospectively. The “significant alterations” test, applicable to both, was not defined. Although heartened by the rescission of Ruling 1975-15, Exxon remained uncertain as to the proper method of accounting for oil at the Hawkins Field Unit, due to the absence of any definition of “significant alteration in producing patterns.” After meeting again in mid-February with FEA officials, DX Opp. CS-61, Exxon concluded that until the FEA clarified the meaning of the new regulations, it would be proper to continue its lease-by-lease calculations at the Hawkins Field, and so advised the other Hawkins interest owners. DX Opp. CS-62. In April 1976, the FEA sought comments as to how best to determine when there occurred “a significant alteration in producing patterns.” Exxon responded as it had earlier, namely, suggesting that “significant alteration” be defined as “the initiation of the major injection or other programs contemplated by the unit, provided however that the date will be no longer than two years from the formation of the unit.” DX Opp. CS-68 at Appendix 3, p. 2. In August the FEA finally published the long-promised clarification defining “significant alteration in producing patterns,” effective September 1, 1976, as either the injection of liquids or gases into the reservoir or the increase of production allowables for any property constituting the unit. Although still puzzled by this definition as it applied to the Hawkins Field Unit, Exxon attorney Fred File concluded that it did require the calculation of an aggregated, unit BPCL. DX Opp. CS-75. Accordingly, Exxon did calculate such a unit BPCL for the Hawkins Field Unit, but, noting that no definition had existed before that time, did so only as of September 1, 1976, and then under the more generous provisions of Section 212.75. Exxon continued to account for oil production at the Hawkins Field Unit in this manner until the repeal of the oil price regulations in January 1981. From January 1975 through August 1976 production at the Hawkins Field remained relatively stable at about 112,000 barrels per day. See PX 288. Thereafter, despite the implementation of the inert gas enhanced recovery project in March 1977, production began to decline, to about 90,000 barrels per day in July 1977, and finally dropping to about 45,000 barrels per day in January 1981 at the time oil prices were decontrolled. Id. Despite the steady decline in production, an increasing percentage of oil was accounted for by Exxon as upper-tier, higher-priced oil, until beginning June 1, 1979, almost all of the then 62,000 barrels per day was classified as new oil. Id.; see Plaintiff’s Appendix of Charts and Graphs, F. In January of 1978 the DOE issued to Exxon a Notice of Probable Violation, charging it with violating the oil price regulations in its sale of crude oil produced at the Hawkins Field Unit. On June 8, 1978, the DOE brought this enforcement action. II. The Unit Property Rule DOE maintains that the Hawkins Field Unit, because it was formed before February 1976, has always been subject solely to the requirement of 10 C.F.R. § 212.72 that a unit BPCL be established as of the date of unitization. DOE asserts further that the validity of this requirement, referred to herein as the unit property rule, has been definitively resolved by the Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals (“TECA”) in Pennzoil Co. v. DOE, 680 F.2d 156 (Em.App. 1982), cert. dismissed, - U.S. -, 103 S.Ct. 841, 74 L.Ed.2d 1032 (1983) and that . the test of significant alteration in producing patterns, first announced in the preamble to the February 1976 regulations, is relevant to pre-existing units only as guidance in its relaxed enforcement policy. Exxon denies any controlling effect to the Pennzoil case and launches a wide-ranging attack on both the procedural and substantive validity of the unit property rule. The February 1976 amendments to the regulation, Exxon maintains, were not before the Pennzoil court. The significant alterations test constituted an entirely new regulation, Exxon continues, which cannot be given retroactive effect and which, as applied by DOE, arbitrarily discriminates between units formed before and after February 1976. A. Procedural Validity Exxon properly notes that the TECA in Pennzoil did not have before it the question of the procedural regularity of the issuance of the original CLC regulations in 1973. Exxon argues that the issuance of those regulations was fatally flawed because the notice of proposed rulemaking gave no hint that a unit would be considered a single “property.” Section 207(c) of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, 12 U.S.C. § 1904 note, applied to the CLC the informal rulemaking requirements of Section 4 of the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 553. Section 4(a) of the APA requires that “notice of proposed rule-making ... shall include ... either the terms or substance of the proposed rule or a description of the subjects and issues involved.” 5 U.S.C. § 553(b)(3). The purpose of the notice requirement is to afford interested parties a meaningful opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process. McCulloch Gas Processing v. DOE, 650 F.2d 1216, 1221 (Em.App.1981). Notice is sufficient if it “fairly apprise[s] the interested persons of the ‘subjects and issues’ before the agency.” Id. at 1222, quoting American Iron and Steel Institute v. EPA, 568 F.2d 284, 291 (3d Cir.1977). Under the two-tier pricing structure proposed by the CLC on July 20, 1973, increased or “new” oil production was to be measured for each “property” on which the producer “has leased” or “owns production rights.” 38 Fed.Reg. 19,464; 19,482 (1973). Any amount by which current production exceeded 1972 production in a given month could be sold free of price controls. Id. Exxon first complains that the “right to produce” concept underlying the unit property rule was absent from the July 20th notice. Plainly, the proposed regulations did not state in so many words that a unit would be considered a single property. Such precision is not required, however, in order to “fairly apprise” interested parties of the issues before the agency, and reaction to the notice here shows that interested parties were in fact properly alerted. Nine industry commenters specifically addressed the need for a precise definition of the term “property”. Pennzoil Co. v. DOE, supra, 680 F.2d at 161. Of these, seven suggested that a unit would or should be considered a single property. Nor was Exxon as befuddled as it now claims to have been. An internal Exxon memorandum written only days after publication of the proposed rules interpreted them to require that a “ ‘base production control level’ [be] calculated for each property (Lease or Unit) each month .... ” PX 21. Mr. M.A. Wright, Chief Executive Officer of Exxon U.S.A., evinced his understanding of the unit property rule when he complained to CLC Director John Dunlop that secondary recovery operations might “substantially extend the producing life of older fields without producing ‘new’ oil under the Phase IY rules.” PX 29 at 11; PX 32 at 8-10. Two weeks after Mr. Wright’s comments an Exxon representative attended a mid-August CLC conference at which he learned that a unit of oil leases would be considered a single property under the proposed regulations and that “production levels from the combined properties would have to exceed 1972 levels before they were considered to be producing new oil.” PX 37. Finally, and most significant, Exxon belied its claimed incomprehension when it applied a unit BPCL without hesitation at its Webster Unit on September 1,1973, just days after the final regulation was published. PX76. But Exxon’s complaint goes further. The final regulations, it claims, differed so substantially from their proposed form as to render the opportunity to comment meaningless and hence the regulation invalid. The court notes at the outset that the fact that a final rule differs, even substantially, from the published proposal, is not fatal; modification of proposed rules does not automatically generate a new round of notice and comment. BASF Wyandotte Corp. v. Costle, 598 F.2d 637, 642 (1st Cir.1979); International Harvester Co. v. Ruckleshaus, 478 F.2d 615, 632 (D.C.Cir.1973). As the court wrote in Trans-Pacific Freight v. Federal Maritime Commission, 650 F.2d 1235, 1249 (D.C.Cir.1980), “[t]he whole rationale of notice and comment rests on the expectation that the final rules will be somewhat different — and improved — from the rules originally proposed by the agency.” Yet such explanations are unnecessary here, where that portion of the rule sub judice, as finally promulgated, differs hardly at all from its proposed form. Admittedly, the CLC noted in the preamble to the final rule that “Subpart L in its final form has been changed extensively from the proposal that was published on July 19, 1973.” 38 Fed.Reg. 22,536. Comparison of the proposed and final forms reveals, however, that the changes were made primarily in those parts of Subpart L dealing with refiners and retailers, and not in that part dealing with crude oil production. Compare 6 C.F.R. §§ 150.355 — 150.363 (1974), 38 Fed. Reg. 22,539 — 22,543, with proposed rules 6 C.F.R. §§ 150.355 — 150.362, 38 Fed.Reg. 19,482 — 19,483. To be sure, the word property was separately defined in final form, as “the right which arises from a lease or from a fee interest to produce domestic crude petroleum.” 6 C.F.R. § 150.354(b) (1974), 38 Fed.Reg. at 22,538. But the proposed formula for calculation of new and old oil referred to the property at which a producer “has leased” or “owns production rights.” 38 Fed.Reg. at 19,482. This court perceives no real difference, much less a substantial one, between the two forms. Contrary to Exxon’s contentions, the notice and comment provisions of the APA “d[o] not require every aspect of the proposed order to be explained in the general notice.” Common Carrier Conference v. United States, 534 F.2d 981, 982-83 (D.C. Cir.1976), cert. denied 429 U.S. 921, 97 S.Ct. 317, 50 L.Ed.2d 288 (1976). Industry reaction to the CLC proposal, including that of Exxon, indicates that “[t]he industry was generally on notice” as to the workings of the two-tier pricing structure, id, thereby satisfying the notice and comment requirements of the APA. Exxon contends, however, that CLC failed to satisfy the second requirement of APA procedures for informal rulemaking, namely, that the agency publish, along with the final rules, “a concise general statement of their basis and purpose.” 5 U.S.C. § 553(c). The CLC, says Exxon, failed to do so, rendering the oil price regulation invalid. The primary purpose of requiring a contemporaneous statement of basis and purpose is to enable a reviewing court to judge the reasonableness of a rule in light of its stated aims. American Standard, Inc. v. United States, 602 F.2d 256, 269, 220 Ct.Cl. 411 (Ct.Cl.1979). But informal rulemaking does not demand an exhaustive listing of factual findings, nor a full reasoned analysis, but instead a “concise general statement.” Citizens to Save Spencer County v. EPA, 600 F.2d 844, 883-84 (D.C.Cir.1979); see 1 K. Davis, Administrative Law Treatise § 6:12 (2d ed. 1978). And where the agency’s aims are obvious and unmistakable, courts have upheld rules with no statement of basis and purpose. See Tabor v. Joint Board for Enrollment of Actuaries, 566 F.2d 705, 710 (D.C.Cir.1977); Alabama Ass’n of Insurance Agents v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 533 F.2d 224, 236 (5th Cir.1976); Hoving Corp. v. FTC, 290 F.2d 803, 807 (2d Cir.1961); American Standard, Inc. v. United States, supra, 602 F.2d at 269. Examination of the preamble to the final oil price regulation, along with contemporaneous agency statements cited therein, when viewed in the surrounding regulatory context, provides ample evidence from which a reviewing court may discern the basis and purpose not only of the regulation generally, but also of that part of it about which Exxon complains, the unit property rule. The preamble to the final rules stated: A 2-tier price system has been adopted, providing for a ceiling on domestic crude petroleum prices but allowing new crude and an equivalent amount of old crude to be sold at prices above the ceiling. 38 Fed.Reg. 22,536. Implicit in a structure which rewards only additional production with higher prices, and obvious even to those less sophisticated than Exxon, is a goal of inducing increased domestic crude oil production while keeping average prices down. But if Exxon could not glean that meaning from the regulation alone, the preamble referred to an August 10th press release from CLC Director John Dunlop which unequivocally stated: The Council has been very concerned that the final regulations strike a delicate balance between constraining prices while at the same time encouraging the necessary increase in supplies which the country must have. The “2-tier” pricing system ... is expected to stimulate domestic crude oil production while maintaining price controls on oil presently being produced. The “2-tier” system will encourage increased investment in domestic exploration and will provide an economic incentive to allow the recovery of a larger percentage of oil in existing reservoirs. PX 36. Not only were the CLC’s twin goals implicit in the regulation, but the unit property rule itself, requiring that each unit be treated as a single property, inhered as well in the regulations when viewed in the context of the surrounding statutory scheme. The 1973 CLC oil price regulations were but a small part of the fourth phase of the economy-wide federal program of price con-, trols to which the oil industry, including Exxon, had long been subject. As such, the CLC regulations carried forth the primary statutory mandate to hold down prices of crude oil by putting a ceiling price on much of domestic production. The CLC’s attempt to boost domestic oil production while keeping prices down could succeed only if production increases were real and not the result of gerrymandering. Even Exxon perceptively noted in its comments to the proposed regulations that one possible result of the two-tier price system could be that a producer’s “strongest incentive would be to obtain higher prices by arranging production in such a way as to shift oil into the ‘new’ category to the maximum extent possible.” PX 32 at 9. The unit property rule was implicit in the regulation because, as the TECA has already found, it was dictated by the CLC’s “duty to reasonably inhibit gerrymandering of boundaries undertaken to avoid price controls.” Pennzoil Co. v. DOE, supra, 680 F.2d at 169. The explicit agency pronouncements as to the basis and purpose of the August 1973 oil price regulations not only satisfy the requirements of a concise, general statement, but surpass that requirement insofar as the regulations’ basis and purpose were clear from the regulations themselves and hence in need of little further explication. Accordingly, the court finds that the August 1973 CLC oil price regulations were issued in accordance with all the applicable procedural requirements of the APA. B. Substantive validity 1. Stripper well exemption In the first of several attacks on the substantive validity of the unit property rule, Exxon argues that to require a unit containing stripper well leases to be treated as a single property is unlawful because to do so would contravene the intent of Congress when it exempted stripper well oil from price controls. In support of its argument Exxon first traces the evolution of the stripper well exemption through its several manifestations, from its original enactment in the mid-November 1973 Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act (“TA-PAA”), Pub.L. No. 93-153, § 406, 87 Stat. 576, 590, its virtually identical reenactment only days thereafter in the EPAA in late November 1973, the brief subjection of stripper well oil to upper-tier ceiling prices as mandated by the EPCA in December 1975, and the final return of stripper well production to exemption in August 1976 under the Energy Conservation and Production Act (“ECPA”), Pub.L. No. 94-385, § 121, 90 Stat. 1125, 1132-33, 15 U.S.C. § 757(i). Exempt production was originally defined in Section 406 of the TAPAA as crude oil “produced from any lease whose average daily production of such substances for the preceding calendar month does not exceed ten barrels per well.” The original CLC regulation in November 1973 implementing the exemption defined “stripper well lease” as a “property” whose average daily production of crude oil petroleum, and petroleum condensates, including natural gas liquids, per well did not exceed 10 barrels per day during the preceding calendar month. 38 Fed.Reg. 32,494, 32,495 (1973); 6 C.F.R. § 150.54(s)(2). “Property” was in turn defined as the right which arises from a lease in existence in 1972 or from a fee interest to produce domestic crude petroleum in existence in 1972 and is coextensive with that property used in § 150.354(b) [later § 212.72] for purposes of determining “base production control level.” 38 Fed.Reg. at 32,495 (1973); 6 C.F.R. § 150.54(s)(2). The issue before the court is to determine the proper method to account for production from individual stripper well leases which, prior to February 1976, joined with other non-stripper tracts to form an enhanced recovery unit such as the Hawkins Field Unit. The DOE maintains that upon unitization individual stripper well leases lost their exempt status and that the “property” for purposes of applying the stripper well exemption becomes the unit rather than the individual lease. In other words, according to the DOE, the stripper well exemption applies to production from units formed prior to February 1976 only if average production per well for the unit as a whole is under ten barrels per day. Exxon disputes DOE’s interpretation and argues that even if a unit BPCL is applied for the purposes of calculating amounts of new and old oil, those particular constituent properties which before unitization qualified as stripper well leases must continue after unitization to enjoy their exempt status. The DOE interpretation, says Exxon, is contrary to the plain language and underlying purpose of the several federal statutes providing special treatment to stripper well production, as well as inconsistent with the DOE’s own implementing regulations. In support of its own interpretation, Exxon first points to the language in Section 406 of the TAPAA, reiterated in Section 4(e)(2) of the EPAA, which exempted production “from any lease whose average daily production ... does not exceed ten barrels per well . .. . ” (emphasis added). The original implementing regulations defined “stripper well lease” in terms of “property” which was in turn defined as “the right which arises from a lease in existence in 1972 or from a fee interest ... in existence in 1972.” 38 Fed.Reg. at 32,495 (1973) (emphasis added). The FEA later gave added protection to strippers when it promulgated the “Gypsy Rose Lee Rule,” a “once-a-stripper-always-a-stripper” policy under which a stripper well property, once qualified, would always retain its exempt status even if average daily production thereafter exceeded ten barrels. 10 C.F.R. § 210.32; 40 Fed.Reg. 22,123, 22,124 (1975). The intent of Congress, argues Exxon, made explicit in the regulations, was to accord special treatment to stripper well leases, to be preserved through lease-by-lease accounting after unitization, so that production would be maintained at these marginal properties. To allow the stripper well exemption to be swallowed up and lost upon unitization, Exxon contends, would contravene that Congressional intent. To accept Exxon’s interpretation of the stripper well exemption would greatly overstate its reach and would accord it an importance, above all other competing Congressional purposes, far beyond Congress’s intent. The limited purpose of the exemption was, as Exxon correctly states, to maintain production at marginal properties, operation of which would not otherwise be economically feasible. See Francis Oil & Gas Co. v. Exxon Corp., 687 F.2d 484, 485 (Em.App.1982). Still, Congress recognized the enormous potential for abuse of the exemption and consequently gave the FEA broad powers to make rules to limit such abuse. As the TECA wrote in the leading case interpreting the stripper well exemption, “[t]he exemption benefits to well operators to have their leases declared ‘stripper well’ was an enormous incentive for manipulation of the exemption. The President and Congress vested with the FEA broad authority to prevent such abuses.” In re DOE Stripper Well Exemption Litigation, 690 F.2d 1375, 1386 (Em.App.1982). That court quoted extensively from the Conference Report accompanying the TAPAA: The Congress intends that the provisions of this section will be strictly enforced and regulated by the administering agency to insure that the limited exemption of this class of wells for the express purposes described above is not in any way broadened.... The Conferees expect the administering agency ... to provide by regulation safeguards against the manipulation of gerrymandering of lease units in a manner that evades the price control and allocation programs. These regulations shall be so designed as to provide safeguards against any abuse, over-reaching or altering of normal patterns of operations to achieve a benefit under this section which would not otherwise be available.... The sole purpose and objective of this Section 406 is to keep stripper wells — those producing less than ten barrels per day — in production. ... It is not intended to confer any benefit on the owners and operators of wells producing in excess of ten barrels per day. Id. at 1387 quoting H.R.Rep. No. 624, 93d Cong., 1st Sess. 30 (1973), (emphasis added), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 2417. The legislative history of the TAPAA makes unmistakably clear the very narrow scope of the stripper well exemption and the broad authority vested in the FEA to prevent its abuse. To allow individual stripper well leases to keep their exempt status after unitization, after enhanced recovery efforts could shift oil production across lease lines and distort production patterns, would result in “an exemption which would have an impact far in excess of that ever contemplated by Congress.” In re DOE Stripper Well Exemption Litigation, supra, at 1388. To be sure, a primary concern of Congress expressed in the TA-PAA Conference Report was that existing lease lines would be gerrymandered “to average down high production wells with a number of low production stripper wells to remove the high production wells from price ceilings.” H.R.Rep. No. 624, 93d Cong., 1st Sess. 30 (1973), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 2532. Congress’s underlying purpose of preventing any “altering of normal patterns of operations to achieve a benefit under this section which would not otherwise be available”, id., applies equally, however, to shifts of production across lease lines underground after unitization as it does to shifts of the lease lines themselves. Were the FEA to have adopted Exxon’s interpretation, it would have ignored its statutory duty “to prevent manipulation of lease units in a manner that evades the price control and allocation programs.” In re DOE Stripper Well Exemption Litigation, supra at 1381. Application of the unit property rule to the stripper well lease exemption is a proper balancing of Congressional aims, see Pennzoil Co. v. DOE, supra, 680 F.2d at 169, and is consistent with “the prevailing view that a unit forms a single property for the purposes of calculating the various regulatory classifications in the federal petroleum pricing schemes”, Francis Oil & Gas Co. v. Exxon Corp., supra, 687 F.2d at 488, including the classification of stripper well oil. 2. The production incentive objective of the two-tier pricing structure In several different ways Exxon argues that DOE, in its singleminded pursuit of the objective of controlling prices, ignored or even frustrated Congressional desires to spur increased production. Citing contemporaneous statements by various agency employees, Exxon maintains that the overriding purpose of the two-tier oil 'pricing structure, from its inception in August 1973 pursuant to the ESA, through its successive rebirths pursuant to the EPAA and the EPCA, was. to provide incentives to the oil industry to increase domestic crude oil production. The unit property rule, Exxon contends, is arbitrary and cápricious, without rational basis, and in excess of statutory authority, because it contravenes Congressional intent in two ways. First, and in particular, Exxon claims that the effect of the unit property rule in discouraging unitization is contrary to several of the objectives of the EPAA specifically enumerated by Congress, including protection of public health and national security, preservation of an economically sound and competitive petroleum industry, economic efficiency, and minimization of economic distortion. See EPAA § 4(b)(1); 15 U.S.C. § 753(b)(l)._ Second, and more generally, Exxon maintains that the effect of the unit property rule, in erecting insurmountable barriers to unitization and enhanced recovery projects, defeats the purpose of encouraging increased production. Application of the unit property rule to the Hawkins Field Unit, Exxon asserts, would result in the loss, upon unitization, of virtually all of the new and stripper well oil which was being produced from particular constituent properties prior to unitization. As the FEA itself recognized, see n. 8 supra, and as Exxon attempts to show by deposition testimony of Hawkins Field interest owners, see Def.Mem. at 169-175, prospective unit participants who were producers of new and stripper well oil might be reluctant to join the unit if, when their production was averaged with that of other unit participants, it would lose its exempt or upper-tier status. The court may strike down the unit property rule only if it is arbitrary or capricious. That standard of review requires this court to uphold the unit property rule “if upon consideration of relevant factors, there was no clear error of judgment and there is a rational basis for the conclusions reached by the administrative body.” Grigsby v. DOE, 585 F.2d 1069, 1074 (Em.App.1978). Moreover, it is well-settled that deference is due the interpretations of statutes and implementing regulations by the agency charged with their enforcement. Pasco, Inc. v. FEA, 525 F.2d 1391, 1400 (Em.App.1975). Deference is particularly appropriate when the agency is confronted with the “gargantuan task” of achieving the equitable allocation of crude oil at equitable prices under “recognized emergency conditions.” Id. at 1394. As the TECA has written in Consumers Union of the United States, Inc. v. Sawhill, 525 F.2d 1068 (Em.App.1975): “[T]he width of administrative authority must be measured in part by the purposes for which it was.conferred.” Nowhere could this oft-repeated rubric be more relevant than where Congress acts in a crisis situation. The Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act is Congress’ response to precisely such a situation. Id. at 1077 (citations omitted). Congress knew when it enacted the EPAA that the nine objectives listed therein were not all mutually attainable. In fact, Congress recognized that “in some instances, it may be impossible to satisfy one objective without sacrificing the accomplishment of another.” H.R.Rep. No. 628, 93d Cong., 1st Sess. 12 (1973), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, pp. 2582, 2688. Congress directed only that the EPAA objectives be sought “to the maximum extent practicable”, 15 U.S.C. § 753(b)(1), indicating the need for the agency to balance competing considerations. Consumers Union of the United States v. Sawhill, supra, 525 F.2d at 1073.' The most important balance to be struck, Congress recognized, was the “equitable balance between the sometimes conflicting needs of providing adequate inducement for the production of adequate supply of product and of holding down spiraling consumer costs.” H.R.Rep. No. 628, 93d Cong., 1st Sess. 26 (1973), U.S. Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 2703. The particular balance struck by the agency when it promulgated the unit property rule has already been approved by the TECA in Pennzoil Co. v. DOE, supra, 680 F.2d 156 (Em.App.1982). Although the court’s express holding was limited to upholding Ruling 1975-15 as a valid interpretation of the property definition in 10 C.F.R. § 212.72, the court made unmistakably clear its conclusion that the regulation itself was consistent with Congressional intent as expressed in the underlying statutes. That result, the court found, was dictated by its prior holding in Grigsby v. DOE, supra, 585 F.2d 1069 (Em.App.1979). In Grigsby plaintiff operated a unit, consisting of five previously independent tracts, with one unit well. When that unit well began producing excessive salt water, Grigsby drilled a substitute well in 1974 on another of the constituent tracts. Grigsby’s treatment of all oil from the substitute well as new oil was challenged by the FEA, which applied the unit property rule to insist that prior production from the first well had to be included in the calculation of a unit BPCL from which amounts of new and old oil production at the second well could be determined. The Grigsby court upheld the FEA, stating that “[t]o allow the unit to define the property ... is consistent with both the language of .the definition and the purposes of the Act.” Id. at 1075 (emphasis added). The facts in the Pennzoil case, involving a field in production in 1972 but which was unitized after 1972 and before February 1976, are more directly on point. On May 1, 1974 the thirty-nine separate tracts of the Walker Creek Field were combined to form a unit and Pennzoil was designated as unit operator. Prior thereto each tract produced separately and had been assigned a separate BPCL. Ten months after unitization Pennzoil began gas injection, but continued nevertheless for another five months, until the issuance of Rule 1975-15, to account for production on a lease-by-lease basis, as it had since the field was unitized. Pennzoil brought suit to challenge the validity of Ruling 1975-15. The TECA held that Ruling 1975-15, which embodied the unit property rule, would, “[ejven in the absence of our prior decisions ... be sustainable as a reasonable interpretation. It is consistent with the language of the property definition. It rationally balanced the objectives of the two-tier pricing structure.” 680 F.2d at 179 (emphasis added). Exxon’s challenge to the validity of the unit property rule is without merit, fundamentally flawed by the myopia of which it accuses the DOE. Exxon chooses to see only one purpose to the two-tier pricing structure, that of providing production incentives, while ignoring the numerous other objectives which the agency had to consider, including the most fundamental, that of price control. Admittedly, as the agency itself recognized, the unit property rule does create some disincentives to unitization and hence in some measure discourages the extra production which might come from enhanced recovery projects. But as the TECA has repeatedly recognized, the DOE was entrusted by Congress with the task of balancing multiple, conflicting objectives. Pennzoil Co. v. DOE, supra, 680 F.2d at 169. The two-tier price system was set up originally primarily “to halt the inflationary spiral in domestic oil prices.” In re DOE Stripper Well Exemption Litigation, supra, 690 F.2d at 1380. Exxon, in its singleminded emphasis on production incentives, ignores the teaching of the Pennzoil court when it wrote that “Pennzoil’s reading of the definition would disregard the agency’s primary responsibility of balancing objectives and ignore its duty to reasonably inhibit gerrymandering of boundaries undertaken to avoid price controls.” 680 F.2d at 169. In In re DOE Stripper Well Exemption Litigation, supra, 690 F.2d 1375, the district court invalidated the FEA rule excluding injection wells from the calculation of “average daily production” for the purposes of identifying exempt stripper well properties. The district court found the rule arbitrary and capricious because it was a disincentive to enhanced recovery projects which rely on such injection wells. The TECA reversed. Although the TECA’s holding is not directly applicable to Exxon’s challenge to the unit rule, the language the court used is particularly telling and bears repeating here. The error of the district court, wrote the TECA, and the error of Exxon here, this court would add, was its total reliance on production incentives. It fails to adequately weigh the other side of the coin. Price controls on oil was the fundamental purpose of the legislation. It is obvious that Congress in no way intended to create an opportunity for mass evasion of those controls. 690 F.2d at 1392. Similarly here, as the TECA has already found, application of the unit property rule requiring that a unit be considered a single property with a single, aggregated BPCL for the purposes of calculating quantities of new, released, stripper and old oil, is a reasonable balancing of competing Congressional purposes which must be upheld by this court. C. The February 1976 amendments to the regulations Although the Pennzoil court clearly upheld the unit property rule of 10 C.F.R. § 212.72, that court expressly declined to consider the effects of later amendments to the oil price regulation on the application of that rule. Effective February 1, 1976, however, the FEA rescinded Ruling 1975-15 ab initio, and declared that operators of units formed both before and after that date need not calculate a unit BPCL until there occurred a “significant alteration in producing patterns.” Moreover, units formed after February 1,1976 could benefit from the newly-created Section 212.75, providing for a more liberal unit BPCL rule, imputed stripper well oil, and, as of September 1, 1976, imputed new oil. The DOE contends that the Hawkins Field Unit has always been subject to the strict requirements of Section 212.72 alone, namely, that a unit BPCL be established as of the date of unitization. DOE maintains that the rescission of Ruling 1975-15 as to pre-existing units was only a relaxation of enforcement policy, and that with respect to such units the “significant alteration” test serves only as guidance in compliance audits. See Ruling 1977-2, 42 Fed.Reg. 4409, 4415 (1977). Exxon argues that the “significant alterations in producing patterns” test constituted an entirely new regulation, not applicable before September 1, 1976, the effective date of the formal definition of the term. Any attempt to apply it before that date, says Exxon, would constitute unlawful retroactive rulemaking. Exxon further asserts that to deny to preexisting units the benefits of Section 212.75 given to units formed after February 1, 1976 is arbitrary and capricious discrimination. 1. Retroactivity The DOE’s attempt to characterize its rescission of Ruling 1975-15 as a mere relaxation in enforcement policy cannot withstand scrutiny. The agency’s pronouncements in February 1976 amounted to a completely new, although less strict, interpretation of the property definition in Section 212.72. That definition of “property” as “the right to produce domestic crude oil from a lease or from a fee interest” had generated some confusion as to its proper application to unitized properties. The FEA eliminated that confusion when, in Ruling 1975-15, it made explicit what was implicit in the regulation itself — the requirement that a unit be treated as a single property. In that Ruling the FEA stated: [T]he need for comparison of like quantities requires the producer in computing the BPCL to measure and total the individual 1972 monthly production levels for each of the leases that now comprise the unit. 40 Fed.Reg. 40,832 (1975). Only five months later, however, the agency, in equally clear terms, rescinded that interpretation ab initio. In the preamble to the February 1976 amendments, the agency explained: Ruling 1975-15 is rescinded ab initio insofar as it requires producers of unitized properties to total all the BPCL’s of the participating leases and to treat the unit as a single property, before such time as there has been a significant alteration in pre-unitized producing patterns of the individual leases. 41 Fed.Reg. at 4937. Nowhere in the preamble is there any hint that the agency intended the rescission of the strict unit property rule embodied in Ruling 1975-15 to be merely a relaxation of enforcement policy as applied to pre-existing units. Indeed, when the agency intended such a discriminatory result, it stated its aim clearly. For example, it established the special unit BPCL rule of Section 212.75 “[f]or units established later in 1976, or thereafter.” 41 Fed.Reg. at 4938 (1976). However, it rescinded Ruling 1975-15 not prospectively alone, but ab initio. In other words, it was as if that interpretation had never existed. To conclude, however, that the significant alterations test, finally defined effective September 1, 1976, constituted a new i