Mobil is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court after the petrol giant was ordered to pay $10 million for the cleanup of two of its former Auckland sites.
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The Court of Appeal yesterday ordered the company to make the payment to the council-owned agency Waterfront Auckland for rehabilitating the sites it used from 1925 until 2011.
Mobil used the waterfront sites to bulk-store petroleum products, and the land was now heavily contaminated.
Waterfront Auckland took the company to court, saying tenancy agreements signed in 1985 obliged it to deliver the land in good, clean order when its lease ended.
Mobil argued underground contamination was outside the scope of those tenancies.