Oil CEOs asked about sex scandal

Royal Dutch Shell Group, Chevron Corp. and Gary Williams Energy Corp. are being asked what senior executives knew about gifts and inappropriate relationships with Interior Department officials.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, sent letters to the companies’ chief executives, Markey’s office said. The CEOs are asked in the letters whether senior executives knew that employees were providing gifts and having “inappropriately close relationships” with Interior Department employees.

A report released last week by the inspector general of the Interior Department found that members of the Minerals Management Service, which oversees collection of billions in annual royalties from oil and natural gas drilling on federal lands, took gifts from and had sex with oil company contacts.