Former Pioneer Natural Resources Chief Executive Scott Sheffield sued the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, seeking to overturn a consent decree that blocked him from joining the board of Exxon Mobil.
The lawsuit Sheffield filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas comes after the FTC last week officially filed the consent decree it proposed last year as part of Exxon’s $65 billion takeover of Pioneer, a major player in the West Texas oil fields. The FTC in that decree alleged Sheffield had attempted to collude with rival companies and the Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel OPEC to fix oil prices. Sheffield has denied the allegations.
The decree bars Exxon from ever hiring Sheffield. It also prohibits it from hiring any Pioneer employee for its board for the next five years. Sheffield in his lawsuit states that Exxon had agreed to place him on its board of directors before the FTC demanded otherwise in the consent decree.
Sheffield’s lawsuit echoes statements he made in May against the case. In it, he accuses the FTC of violating the Administrative Procedure Act and his First Amendment rights in its actions against him and asks the court to vacate the decree.
