U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Witch Hunt Against O&G Re OPEC
THE SHOW TRIAL: Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, an industry foe. He has requested documents from 18 oil companies — including Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC, and Chevron
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Witch Hunt Against O&G Re OPEC
ANTI-DRILLING/FOSSIL FUEL | COMMODITY PRICE | INDUSTRYWIDE ISSUES
July 1, 2024
Must be it’s an election year. How do we know? The desperate Democrats are doing their best to distract and focus attention away from the decrepit, mentally impaired Joe Biden by accusing “Big Oil” of conspiring with OPEC to keep oil prices high. Except oil prices aren’t all that high. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Communist (who pretends to be a Democrat) from Rhode Island, is “demanding” all sorts of internal communications from “Big Oil” companies in a new witch hunt he’s launched into this earth-shattering matter. Sheldon Whitehouse is a LOSER in all capitals.
From Bloomberg:
A US Senate committee is investigating whether oil producers are illegally coordinating with OPEC to raise prices, following allegations that the former head of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. colluded with the cartel.
The probe is being led by Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, an industry foe. He has requested documents from 18 oil companies — including Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC, and Chevron Corp. — on grounds that evidence suggests the oil and gas industry may be trying to depress production.
“I am concerned about the possibility that oil and gas companies could be engaging in collusive, anti-competitive activities with OPEC+ that would raise crude oil prices, resulting in higher costs not only for American families,” Whitehouse wrote in letters to the companies, made public Thursday.
The documents sought by Whitehouse include communications among company officials and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries related to oil production and prices, from January 2020 to the present. Representatives of BP, Chevron and Exxon did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The probe comes after the Federal Trade Commission, as part of its review of Exxon’s $60 billion takeover of Pioneer, said it found evidence Pioneer’s former head, Scott Sheffield, sought to communicate with OPEC and US peers about oil pricing and output. The FTC referred the matter for a potential criminal investigation. Sheffield denies the allegations.
A spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute dismissed the new probe as “yet another election-year stunt.”
“The reality is that US producers have increased production to record levels despite a growing list of inflationary policies that hurt consumers and threaten to cede our energy advantage to nations hostile to US interests,” Bethany Williams, a spokeswoman for the trade group, said in an email. (1)
Loser Whitehouse issued this press release from the Senate Committee on the Budget last week with the false and misleading subhead: “Mounting evidence suggests the oil and gas industry may be illegally coordinating with foreign cartel to depress production and raise prices on consumers.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has launched an investigation demanding answers from 18 oil producers about any efforts to illegally coordinate with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries—the international oil cartel—or representatives of its member countries that would artificially raise prices on American consumers and increase costs for the federal government.
The new probe follows revelations from the Federal Trade Commission that former Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield attempted to work with OPEC to manipulate global oil and gas production, increase oil and gas prices, and boost his company’s profits. The FTC completed its investigation as part of its review of ExxonMobil’s bid to acquire Pioneer, a $64.5 billion deal that represents the largest fossil fuel merger in 20 years.
“Based on recent events involving Pioneer Natural Resources Company, soon to merge with ExxonMobil Corporation, I am concerned about the possibility that oil and gas companies could be engaging in collusive, anti-competitive activities with OPEC+ that would raise crude oil prices, resulting in higher costs not only for American families, but also for the U.S. government when it acquires crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” wrote Chairman Whitehouse in letters sent to the CEOs of APA Corporation, BP, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Continental Resources, Crownquest, Diamondback Energy, Endeavor, EOG Resources, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon, Occidental, Ovintiv, Permian Resources, Shell, and SM Energy.
A recent report found that illegal crude oil price-fixing schemes may have caused over 25 percent of the increase in inflation that hurt many American families in the wake of the COVID- 19 pandemic, and the FTC’s findings suggest that Sheffield and Pioneer may not have been the only ones engaging in collusive activities. Furthermore, recent private class action lawsuits filed against oil producers operating in the Permian Basin region accuse those producers of illegally working together to depress oil production and price-gouge Americans.
“In view of the findings against Sheffield, I seek to understand whether other oil producers operating in the United States may also have been coordinating with OPEC and OPEC+ representatives concerning oil production output, crude oil prices, and the relationship between the production and pricing of oil products,” continued Chairman Whitehouse.
The Committee has requested the following by July 12, 2024:
1. Communications between and among companies’ corporate and affiliate officers and members of the OPEC Secretariat concerning oil production output, crude oil prices, and the relationship between the production and pricing of oil products, dating from January 1, 2020 through the present; and
2. Communications between and among companies’ corporate and affiliate officers and OPEC/OPEC+ concerning oil production output, crude oil prices, and the relationship between the production and pricing of oil products, dating from January 1, 2020 through the present.
Following the FTC’s release of evidence concerning Sheffield’s alleged coordination with OPEC officials, Senator Whitehouse recently joined Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) and 21 other colleagues to urge the Department of Justice to use every tool at its disposal to prevent and prosecute collusion and price fixing in the oil industry.
This Congress, the Budget Committee has exposed Big Oil’s decades-long campaign to avoid accountability for damages from climate change while continuing to obstruct climate action and rake in record profits. Chairman Whitehouse and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) launched an investigation into eight oil and gas companies and a major trade association following reports that former President Donald Trump solicited a quid pro quo from Big Oil executives, promising to roll back climate regulations in exchange for campaign cash.
A multi-year probe by the Senate Budget Committee and Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee exposed the industry’s pattern of making deceptive claims regarding its products, their effects on the climate, and its plans to reduce emissions and combat climate change. Chairman Whitehouse and House Oversight Ranking Member Raskin recently called on the Department of Justice to investigate. (2)
Whitehouse sent identical letters to 18 companies. Here’s the letter the loser sent to Chesapeake Energy:
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Here’s the thing about the letter from Whitehouse to Chesapeake. First, Chesapeake Energy no longer does oil drilling and hasn’t actively drilled for oil in more than a year. So, Whitehouse struck out with this one. He’s so stupid he doesn’t even know that Chessy is a gas (and not oil) driller.
Second, the letter is a request and not a subpoena. We’d tell Whitehouse to stuff his letters up his rear end. These companies are under ZERO obligation to play along. And they should NOT respond and not provide a single slip of paper or email in response to this Commie’s demands. Let the loser eat static.
(1) Bloomberg/Ari Natter (Jun 28, 2024) – US Senate Probes Potential Big Oil, OPEC Collusion
(2) U.S. Senate – Committee on the Budget (Jun 27, 2024) – Budget Committee Initiates Probe into Suspected Collusion Between Big Oil and OPEC