He was definitely the right person to quote, I just had no idea how right.
Through public statements and private communications, Pioneer founder and former CEO Scott D. Sheffield has campaigned to organize anticompetitive coordinated output reductions between and among U.S. crude oil producers, and others, including the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (“OPEC”), and a related cartel of other oil-producing countries known as OPEC+. Mr. Sheffield’s communications were designed to pad Pioneer’s bottom line—as well as those of oil companies in OPEC and OPEC+ member states—at the expense of U.S. households and business.
The FTC is alleging that Mr.Sheffield was deeply involved in an anticompetitive scheme to depress output and make energy prices artificially high. Annoyingly, a lot of the complaint is redacted.
That is not surpring news, but it’s still interesting, and definitely worth a larger investigation. I wonder how much of the post-pandemic energy crunch was due to purposeful scheming.
