T-Boone Picks up $146 million Judgment from 3 West Texas Energy Companies

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Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens and his Mesa Petroleum Partners LP have won a $146 million dollar judgment in a lawsuit against three West Texas oil and gas companies they accused of cutting Mesa out of its share of a Permian Basin deal.

It was a recent unanimous verdict by a Reeves County, Texas jury against J. Cleo Thompson, Baytech LLP and Delaware Basin Resources LLC. The jury ruled they breached a participating agreement and joint operating agreement with Mesa.

“We have maintained from the beginning that Mesa’s oil and gas interests were taken from it illegally” charged Chrysta Castaneda, an attorney who represented Pickens in the lawsuit. “The Red bull is part of what is now one of the biggest resource plays in the world, and we are hopeful that the jury’s decision here will mean that the long history of fair dealings in the oil industry continues.”

The jury assigned a $130 million judgment plus lawyer fees on Baytech and Delaware Basin and hit J. Cleo Thompson with more than $12 million in damages plus attorneys’ fees.

Pickens had originally sought $1 billion in the lawsuit.