After successfully winning his appeal against being barred from joining ExxonMobil's board, shale pioneer Scott Sheffield says he is no longer interested in taking up a seat on the oil major's board of directors.
The top US antitrust regulator Thursday overturned a ban on Sheffield being appointed to the board, which was a condition of approving ExxonMobil's $59.9bn acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, the company founded by Sheffield which he also led.
Under the administration of former president Joe Biden, the US Federal Trade Commission had accused Sheffield of seeking to collude with Opec officials over prices and output, allegations he denied. The agency, which is now in the hands of Republican commissioners, threw out the earlier ruling which it said disregarded decades of precedent.
Sheffield welcomed the decision to vacate the agency's prior order, which he said was based on an "utterly unfounded smear campaign" that threatened free speech and important debates around energy policy, before taking aim at ExxonMobil.
"Exxon signed a rushed, baseless and illegal order barring me and other Pioneer employees from taking an Exxon board seat," he said in a statement. "In doing so, they effectively broke the commitment they made to me in their merger agreement with Pioneer."
John Hess, the chief executive officer of US independent Hess, also had his ban on gaining a seat on Chevron's board reversed by the FTC. Chevron's $53.5bn acquisition of Hess closed Friday after the company prevailed in a dispute over a stake in a Guyanese oil discovery.
"We are very pleased with the FTC's unanimous decision," a spokesperson for Chevron said. "Mr. Hess is a highly respected industry leader, and our board would benefit from his global experience, relationships and expertise."
ExxonMobil did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
