US: Justice Department to continue antitrust probe into oil and gas leases

As advanced drilling technology opened untapped sources of oil and natural gas, it triggered fierce competition among energy companies to scoop up rights to drill on vast swaths of land across the country.

The rush caused lease prices to skyrocket in the most promising fields. In a few cases, gas companies responded by cutting secret deals to rig the bidding and hold down their costs. Federal officials now are investigating to see if these shady practices are more common than believed.

The first big indictment of an executive came this past week, when former Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon was charged with conspiring to rig bids for gas leases in Oklahoma from 2007 to 2012. Prosecutors moved Thursday to drop the charges after McClendon died in a fiery crash one day after the indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City.

Before McClendon’s death, the Justice Department said that his indictment was “the first case resulting from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the oil and natural gas industry.”

No one else was charged in the indictment but two unnamed companies and an unnamed co-conspirator were mentioned. The wording of the indictment made clear that Chesapeake was one of the companies. A Chesapeake Energy spokesman said the company does not expect to face criminal prosecution or fines.

Full content: Olympic.org

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