A Vicksburg oil distributor is among five not admitting wrongdoing but agreeing to pay the state a total of $293,255 after an investigation into price gouging after Hurricane Katrina.

Moak Petroleum, based in Vicksburg, will join with Sumrall Oil in Bay Springs; Prince Oil of Philadelphia; Spaceway of Union; and Southern Oil in Hattiesburg in paying the money, Attorney General Jim Hood said Thursday.

Hood said he intends to take two other Mississippi oil companies to court for their refusal to cooperate in his office’s efforts to recover money allegedly gouged from consumers after the August 2005 storm.

He said Jerry Wilburn Oil of Tupelo, owned by former state Rep. Jerry Wilburn of Mantachie, and Fair Oil of Louisville have not cooperated and will be sued.

&#8220We intend to make an example of these companies,” he said.

Attorney H.L. &#8220Sonny” Merideth of Greenville, who served in the state House with Wilburn and who represents Wilburn Oil, said Wilburn raised prices because of &#8220extenuating circumstances.”

&#8220We have been cooperating and providing them documents,” Merideth said. &#8220They have not notified us they were going to court.”

Mississippi law prevents prices from being increased during a state of emergency. The law, though, does allow retailers or oil distributors to pass along price increases they incur. Without a state of emergency declaration, no Mississippi law defines gouging.

When the storm swept inland, the price for regular gasoline in Vicksburg was $2.54 per gallon. It remained at that level for several months in keeping with a pledge by major oil companies not to increase costs in the disaster area. Warren was one of 45 Mississippi counties in the federal disaster declaration.

Hood said his office was inundated in the days after the storm with complaints alleging oil distributors of price gouging. He said many companies did raise prices, but that some did so to cover their increased costs.

Hood said most of the payment from the oil companies would go into the state general fund.