A federal judge in Colorado has cleared a subsidiary of Newfield Exploration, a company with heavy operations in Oklahoma’s STACK play.
In a recent ruling, the judge said there was no evidence as claimed by two companies that Newfield Production Company convinced a competitor majority-owned by the Ute Tribe to stay out of bidding for drilling assets being auctioned by the firms. The sale eventually totaled $308 million in 2011 in Utah.
Senior U.S. District Judge Wiley Y. Daniel concluded there was no evidence of bid-rigging by the subsidiary of Newfield Exploration. The judge issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by Branta LLC and Harvest (US) Holdings Inc.
The two companies claimed Newfield had brokered an agreement to compensate Ute Energy in exchange for not bidding on the oil, gas and mineral assets in Utah.
