In February 2024, Pearson Warshaw filed a class action against the largest U.S. shale oil producers alleging that they coordinated and constrained U.S. shale oil production. Plaintiffs’ allege that Defendants’ conspiracy has had the purpose and effect of fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of crude oil in and throughout the United States at supracompetitive levels, which caused an increase in the price of home heating oil.
On August 1, 2024, a U.S. judicial panel said that a series of related lawsuits accusing shale oil producers of a price-fixing scheme would be grouped together and assigned to a U.S. federal judge in New Mexico. The order by the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation designated the New Mexico federal court over other venues, including Texas and Nevada, where lawsuits had been filed in recent months. More than a dozen lawsuits allege that shale oil producers conspired to curb shale oil output, which has led to higher prices for products including gasoline, diesel fuel, commercial marine fuel, and heating oil. PW partners Daniel L. Warshaw and Bobby Pouya represent Plaintiff Richard Beaumont in this matter.
The matter In Re: Shale Oil Antitrust Litigation is currently pending in the District of New Mexico (Albuquerque), Case No. 1:24-MD-03119.