We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.
Senate Budget Committee chair launches inquiry after FTC probe purported ‘Big Oil’ executive attempted to collude with OPEC to manipulate petroleum market.
A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe into a U.S. oil corporation executive’s alleged attempt to conspire with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to manipulate global petroleum markets is spurring calls for a broader federal investigation into possible “price-fixing schemes.”
Mr. Whitehouse said the inquiry is triggered by revelations surfacing in the FTC’s investigation into former Pioneer Natural Resources Company CEO Scott Sheffield’s purported attempt “to work with OPEC to manipulate global oil and gas production, increase oil and gas prices, and boost his company’s profits” as part of its review of ExxonMobil’s bid to acquire Pioneer, a $64.5 billion deal that would be the largest oil corporation merger in 20 years.
Mr. Whitehouse said the FTC’s findings suggest Mr. Sheffield and Pioneer were “not the only ones engaging in collusive activities.”
Mr. Sheffield, Pioneer, and ExxonMobil have denied the allegations.
In his announcement Mr. Whitehouse said he has sent letters to the CEOs of APA Corp., BP, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Continental Resources, Crownquest, Diamondback Energy, Endeavor, EOG Resources, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon, Occidental, Ovintiv, Permian Resources, Shell, and SM Energy.
“I am concerned about the possibility that oil and gas companies could be engaging in collusive, anti-competitive activities with OPEC+ that would raise crude oil prices, resulting in higher costs not only for American families, but also for the U.S. government when it acquires crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” he wrote in the letters.
Mr. Whitehouse said the FTC is not alone in its “anti-trust concerns” regarding alleged Big Oil price-fixing, citing “recent private class-action lawsuits filed against oil producers operating in the Permian Basin region [that] accuse those producers of illegally working together to depress oil production and price-gouge Americans.”
The FTC’s findings related to Mr. Sheffield’s alleged attempt to collude with OPEC prompted him to “seek to understand whether other oil producers operating in the United States may also have been coordinating with OPEC and OPEC+ representatives concerning oil production output, crude oil prices, and the relationship between the production and pricing of oil products,” Mr. Whitehouse wrote in the letter.
He said the Senate Budget Committee expects responses from the 18 oil company executives by July 12.