Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest oil producer by market value, is negotiating with the government of Chad over a record $74 billion fine, which is about five times the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The country’s High Court slapped the U.S. firm with the fine last month, after a complaint by the Ministry of Finance that the consortium, which includes Petronas and a Chadian oil firm SNT, failed to pay taxes and had an outstanding $819 million in overdue royalties.

“We disagree with the Chadian court’s ruling and are evaluating next steps. The dispute relates to a disagreement over commitments made by the government to the consortium, not the government’s ability to impose taxes,” Bloomberg quoted Todd Spitler, the company’s spokesman, in an e-mail sent after the court ruling last month.

The negotiations come amid delays in an appeal hearing filed by the oil company last month.

A disagreement in the agreed royalty fee between the firm and the government led to the underpaid royalties.

Exxon Mobil Corp. said that the two percent fee sought by the authorities is higher than the fee agreed, Reuters reported.

Experts however said that the oil company may not pay the fine.

“It’s not a realistic thing and it will never be collected. This is much more about signaling that a renegotiation is in order than something that should trouble shareholders in any way,” Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer at Amsterdam & Partners LLP, told Bloomberg.

The firm discovered oil in the country in 1996, but commercial exploration started in 2003.

The feud between the firm and Chadian government comes two years after Chevron Corp., a global industry giant, sold its 25 percent stake in seven fields and a 21 percent share in the oil pipeline linking Chad to Cameroon.

The Chandian government is not new to controversies with global oil companies.

In 2006, President Idriss Deby ordered the U.S.-owned Chevron and Malaysia’s Petronas to leave the nation, on allegations that they had failed to pay taxes, claims denied by Chevron.