A natural gas company isn’t ready to give up its antitrust claims against two Texas companies even after 10th U.S. Circuit court Judge Richard Matsch in Denver, Colorado ruled against it last year.
Buccaneer Energy, a Nevada Corporation is appealing the judge’s ruling that show down its antitrust lawsuit filed in 2012 against SG Interest, I, LTD and SG Interests VII, LTD. The company contended in its original lawsuit that the two firms agreed not to compete at public auctions for federal oil and gas leases conducted by the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management in violation of the Sherman Act. The suit said the two conspired to also restrain the production, gathering, processing, transportation and sale of natural gas from the Ragged Mountain Field and adjacent areas in Delta and Gunnison Counties, Colorado.
But Judge Richard Matsch, best known in Oklahoma as the judge who heard the murder trials of Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, ruled against Buccaneer saying it failed to make the argument that the defendant’s refusal to negotiate a transportation agreement made the steps of its business plan impossible or futile. In an order dated Sept. 25, 2015, Judge Matsch ruled that Buccaneer’s “theory of injury ignores the economic collapse that occurred in September 2008.” He granted summary judgment for the defendants.