A dispute over seismic surveys has led to a lawsuit filed by Continental Resources Inc. against one of its contractors. The suit filed in Oklahoma City federal court was against Silverthorne Scoop Seismic LLC of Texas and accused the company of not completing 3-D seismic surveys and failing to pay subcontractors.
The suit (cv-01187-M) indicated Continental was concerned Silverthorne might share the information from the seismic surveys with competitors, according to a report in the Journal Record.
Continental claims in the suit that Silverthorne signed the agreement April 30, 2015 to do seismic surveys on 458 squares miles including the Wildhorse Creek Survey and the W. Ardmore Survey. The company reportedly acquired permits and data for 80 of the 238 square miles in the Wildhorse Survey but abandoned the work to conduct a survey for another operator in an area near Wildhorse.
“Silverthorne has not stated or identified when it would return to work on the Wildhorse project,” alleged the lawsuit. “Silverthorne has not provided to Continental any of the Wildhorse field data or other deliverables as required by the Agreement.”
The suit also claimed Silverthorne had failed to pay “over $4,000,000 to third-party contractors working on the Surveys” including $3.2 million to the seismic acquisition and processing contractor.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange.
