A breaking report from Reuters:
Special Report: Chesapeake and rival plotted to suppress land prices
By Brian Grow, Joshua Schneyer and Janet Roberts
GAYLORD, MICHIGAN | Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:47am EDT
This report shows how Chesapeake and EnCana worked together to suppress land prices in public auctions and in dealings with private land owners.
Reuters has some emails exchanges where a Chesapeake VP admits he was working with EnCana “to avoid us bidding each other up in the interim.”
That exchange – and at least a dozen other emails reviewed by Reuters – could provide evidence that the two companies violated federal and state laws by seeking to keep land prices down, antitrust lawyers said.
This is only one example of the Big Oil & Gas Mafia working together to avoid competition of the free market. Hint to reporters: Notice how the Barnett Shale is divided up into sections with the major players each taking a section.
The Big Bank Mafia is too big to fail and the Big Oil & Gas Mafia is too big to follow any rules.
UPDATE: Insight: A land owner caught between energy giants
Encana and Chesapeake, the second-largest natural gas producer in the United States, withdrew offers for Zaremba’s land in quick succession in 2010. That came after they had engaged in a bidding war for his property in the weeks prior, according to the documents reviewed by Reuters.
Emails and other documents show that executives of the two companies discussed detailed plans for preventing Zaremba from getting the price he wanted for about 20,000 acres of land where both sought to drill for gas and oil.
What do you think, Dear Readers? Are they guilty of price fixing?
UPDATE 2: I like this sarcastic blog post.
Here is a video for your enjoyment.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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HAHA….Hint to regulators. Notice how Range Resources has lower Beaver County and the counties below it and above that line is CHK and then others. This is bigger than anyone knows. They were just stupid enough to put it in writing. What’s that I hear? The sound of shredders being brought into the back doors of all the oil and gas headquarters! If I were a computer tech that is experienced in making emails disappear, I could get rich now, but alas, it’s another of my life’s mistakes. I’m destined to sit and watch from the sidelines…..(and chuckle away).
If I were a computer tech, I would gather all the evidence and find a qui tam attorney. Public lands = federal offense = triple damages.
I call it organized crime. It’s been going on in FW since 2004.
That was exactly 2 years after Mitchell Energy figured out how to frack gas and oil from the shale.
I am a computer programmer. Obtain the emails and by the time you have them I’ll have a bad-ass, lightning-fast interface with which to query them. Oddly enough, I’d be using open-source software to do such so the out-of-pocket expense should be very close to free.
do u know another company working sans competition somewhere in eastern pa i think? name…uh…derange?
This is going on everywhere, what about Range Resources being the only major company in Southwestern Pennsylvania? Those guys are not smart enough to come in out of the rain, much less orchestrate something like that.
I heard hum of shredders on Throckmorton St. today.