US shale companies accused of collusion over oil price

The US shale oil industry faces a barrage of lawsuits alleging some of the largest companies in the sector colluded to curb output and raise prices, after similar claims were made by US antitrust regulators, Report informs referring to the Financial Times.

ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and Diamondback Energy are among the companies named in at least 10 class actions alleging they conspired to co-ordinate and constrain shale oil production, which had the effect of raising US retail petrol prices.

The most recent lawsuit was filed on May 13 in the district court for New Mexico, just days after the Federal Trade Commission accused Scott Sheffield, the former boss of Pioneer Natural Resources, of trying to collude with Opec to drive up oil prices.

The lawsuits take aim at the industry’s model of capital discipline, in which producers have pivoted from rapidly building up production in response to high prices in recent years in favor of funneling cash back to investors.

Plaintiffs in New Mexico alleged the group’s collective failure to open the taps as crude prices soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a departure “from their historical practice and rational independent self-interest”.