Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Devon Energy Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. were among a dozen oil companies that should be reimbursed more than $1 billion they paid the U.S. for leases to drill off the California coast, an appeals court ruled today.

The companies or their predecessors bought three dozen leases from 1968 to 1984 to explore for and develop oil and gas resources in the outer continental shelf off California. Laws passed by Congress to limit energy production near U.S. coastlines violated the lease terms, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled in a 2002 lawsuit.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today said the lower court was correct to order the government to pay back the money paid upfront as ``bonuses'' on the leases. It rejected the arguments of the oil companies that they should also be compensated for what they spent to explore the leases.

The other companies were Amber Resources Co. Aera Energy LLC, Delta Petroleum Corporation, Ogle Petroleum Inc., Olac Resources LLC, Poseidon Petroleum LLC, Total E&P USA Inc., Plains Exploration & Production Co., Noble Energy Inc. and NyCal Offshore Development Corp.

``The federal government took the position that they had not broken the leases and, even if they had, our clients were not entitled to recover the lease bonuses,'' said Steven Rosenbaum of Covington & Burling in Washington, who represented the oil companies. Aera, he said, will get the largest amount of compensation.

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the government is reviewing the court's ruling.

Republicans in Congress are pushing to open up more offshore areas to drilling.

The case is Amber Resources Co. v. U.S., 2007-5047 and 2007-5082, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net; Cary O'Reilly in Washington at caryoreilly@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 25, 2008 13:00 EDT