Chevron Corp agreed to pay US$30 million to resolve criminal and civil liabilities related to procurement of oil under the United Nations oil-for-food programme, U.S. prosecutors said yesterday.

Chevron, the No. 2 United States (U.S.) oil company, obtained Iraqi oil under the programme from third parties that paid secret, illegal surcharges to the former government of Iraq, prosecutors said.

Chevron will not be prosecuted and will continue to cooperate with investigators, prosecutors said.

Chevron could not be reached immediately for comment.

The agreement was the result of a joint investigation by the U.S. attorney's office and the Manhattan district attorney's office.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York Police Department and the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, also took part in the probe.

Under the agreement, Chevron will pay US$20 million in forfeiture to the U.S. attorney's office, US$5 million to the Manhattan DA's office, and US$2 million to OFAC.

The company will also pay a penalty of US$3 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The oil-for-food program was established to help Saddam Hussein's Iraq sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies while it was otherwise under U.N. sanctions due to its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.