ENB Pub Note: This is acctually a discrace. Let’s investigate the acctual government agencies that are alleged to have manipulate data for a more postive view of the current adminstration. Or selling of the stratigic oil reserves and destroying the strategic gasoline reserves.
A House of Representatives committee composed of Democrats has launched an investigation into suspected collusion among oil and gas majors in the United States to inflate prices.
The probe comes after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused former Pioneer Natural Resources Co. chief executive Scott Sheffield of scheming with representatives from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and OPEC ally countries to curb oil and gas production to boost prices.
The FTC banned Sheffield from holding a board or advisory position in Exxon Mobil Corp. as a condition in granting anti-trust clearance for the $64.5 billion ExxonMobil-Pioneer merger, according to an FTC statement May 2. While Sheffield retired from the chief executive role last year, he remained on the board of Pioneer.
Pioneer issued a statement the same day saying Sheffield would not contest the condition and prevent the merger. Pioneer however argued that the FTC accusation “reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the U.S. and global oil markets and misreads the nature and intent of Mr. Sheffield’s actions”.
“On the contrary, Mr. Sheffield focused on legitimate topics such as investor feedback on independent oil and gas company growth and capital reinvestment frameworks; unfair foreign practices that threatened to undermine U.S. energy security; and, through dialogue with government officials, the need to sustain a resilient, competitive and economically vibrant oil and gas industry in the United States”, Pioneer said.
ExxonMobil announced the completion of the merger May 3.
In letters sent this week to several chief executives as part of the Democrat investigation, lawmaker Frank Pallone Jr wrote that even before the FTC findings, Democrats raised concern that companies were “artificially inflating gas prices to gouge consumers and produce record profits for shareholders”. Pallone is a ranking member of the Democrats Energy and Commerce Committee, which is conducting the investigation.
The investigation is targeting BP America Inc., Chevron Corp., Devon Energy Corp., ExxonMobil, Hess Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Shell USA Inc.
It builds on the results of the FTC’s investigation into Sheffield that was conducted as part of the anti-trust review of the ExxonMobil-Pioneer merger. The FTC cited public statements and private communications made by Sheffield to back its accusation.
“Even more troubling, Mr. Sheffield appears to have attempted to encourage other U.S. oil producers to follow his and Pioneer’s lead in colluding with a cartel to drive up energy costs at Americans’ expense”, Pallone told the seven companies.
Pallone pointed to publicly available data indicating U.S. oil producers limited production growth despite high prices over the same period that Sheffield was purportedly trying to influence his competitors into reining in output.
“While Pioneer is now fully owned by Exxon, and Mr. Sheffield has been barred from serving on Exxon’s board as a condition of the acquisition, I am concerned that Mr. Sheffield’s behavior may represent common practices across the industry, as reporting and the FTC complaint have suggested”, wrote the congressman for the Sixth District of New Jersey.
“If U.S. oil companies are colluding with each other and foreign cartels to manipulate global oil markets and harm American consumers who then pay more at the pump, Congress and the American people deserve to know”, Pallone added.
Pallone demanded that the seven companies disclose to the committee all communications and meetings between each company’s current or former employees involved in crafting production plans and representatives of OPEC or the OPEC Plus Alliance. Pallone also asked the companies to reveal any legal guidance about competition and anti-trust sanctions received before such meetings.
The legislator also asked for communications between each company and their rivals in the U.S. that relate to present, planned or projected production.
These demands also apply to former Pioneer employees and officials but Pallone directed them to ExxonMobil with the merger already completed.
The companies must also give up non-public communications or meetings their executives had with investors on petroleum production or prices.
Moreover, the companies are asked to reveal efforts to sway government decisions concerning oil production.
Additionally for ExxonMobil, Pallone asked for any guardrails that the company plans to put in place “to ensure that the alleged behavior by Mr. Sheffield is not replicated within Exxon”. ExxonMobil is also asked to detail how it would incorporate ex-Pioneer employees into its corporate structure and their role in production planning.
In response to the investigation, American Petroleum Institute spokesperson Andrea Woods said in a statement, “While we don’t know the details of the FTC’s allegations against one individual, the FTC itself acknowledges the undeniable fact that U.S. producers have led the world in production gains over the past few years”.
“This increase in American production has been instrumental in meeting growing demand and helping rebalance markets—especially in the face of supply cuts from OPEC and other producers”, added the statement by the lobby group emailed to Rigzone.
The companies have not responded to individual requests for comment made by Rigzone.
