When Dean A. McGee (1904-1989), a former chief geologist for Phillips Petroleum, joined the firm in 1946, it changed its name to Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, Incorporated.

[citation needed] Through acquisitions, for a time Kerr-McGee marketed products under the Deep Rock, Coast, Power, and Peoples brands in addition to its own.

Kerr-McGee held substantial mineral rights on the Navajo Nation and filed a lawsuit in the federal district court seeking an injunction to prohibit the tribe from collecting the tax.

Kerr-McGee argued that any tax of non-Indians by a tribe required approval by the Secretary of the Interior and the district court agreed, granting the injunction.

Main oil and gas operations in the US were the Mid-Continent, Rocky Mountains, onshore Louisiana, and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

Kerr-McGee received international criticism for undertaking exploration for hydrocarbon resources offshore the Moroccan controlled area of the disputed territory of Western Sahara in 2001.

In 2003, one of Norway's main private investment funds, Skagen Vekst, sold their €3.6 million stake in the oil company, referring to ethical problems surrounding Kerr-McGee's engagement in Western Sahara.

[8] On May 2, 2006, the company declared its intention to no longer drill off the coast of the Western Sahara, by not renewing the contract signed with Morocco.

"[11] In January 2007, after a full trial on the issues, Kerr-McGee was found by a jury to have failed to report earnings, and thus, under-paying royalties due to the U.S. government.

[13] On September 16, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Marcia S. Krieger of Colorado ordered Kerr-McGee to pay treble damages, or almost $23 million.

[14] It is alleged that Karen Silkwood was negligently or purposefully contaminated with plutonium while working at Kerr-McGee's Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site and investigating safety violations at the plant.

[15][18] Gerry Spence, the noted trial lawyer from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, represented the Karen Silkwood estate in this litigation.

[19] In May 2007, Kerr-McGee Corp spent $18 million on pollution controls in the first comprehensive settlement under the Clean Air Act that reduced harmful emission and conserved natural gas at production facilities across Utah and Colorado.

The settlement addressed violations discovered at several of Kerr-McGee's natural gas compressor stations located on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation near Vernal, Utah, and in the Denver Julesburg Basin near Weld County, Colorado.

In addition to implementing pollution controls, the agreement required Kerr-McGee to pay a $200,000 penalty, and spend $250,000 on environmental projects to benefit the areas in which violations occurred.

[20] In July 2005, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) settled with Kerr McGee Chemical in Henderson, Nevada that required the company to pay $55,392 penalty to resolve air permitting violations at its facility that began in 1993.

The company spent $4.8 million to install proper pollution controls at the facility reducing total carbon monoxide emission by 115 tons per year, an 80% reduction from previous levels.

From 1973 to 1975 it would also produce mixed Plutonium-Uranium Oxide (MOX) 'driver fuel pins' for use in the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford Site in Washington State.

[33] In 1967 Kerr-McGee bought the American Potash and Chemical Company, which owned the Rare Earths Facility in West Chicago, Illinois.

[37] In 1956 Kerr-McGee formed the Kermac Nuclear Fuels Corporation in partnership with Anderson Development Corp, and Pacific Uranium Mines Co.

[41] Kerr-McGee bought the American Potash and Chemical Company in 1967, including its Rare Earths Facility that processed uranium and thorium.