Shares of Chesapeake Energy and Encana tumbled Monday after a Reuters investigation showed that top executives of the two rivals plotted in 2010 to avoid bidding against each other in a state auction and in at least nine prospective deals with private landowners.
Following the report, Michigan officials pledged to determine whether the two energy giants acted two years ago to suppress land prices there.
Top company officials discussed ways to divide counties in Michigan so that neither company would bid against the other for what they considered prime oil and gas acreage, e-mails show. Some of the e-mails were between now-embattled Chesapeake chief executive Aubrey McClendon and Encana USA president Jeff Wojahn.
Ed Golder, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said officials were “reviewing the allegations.”
