PECOS, Texas (AP) — A jury has awarded oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens $146 million over a dispute related to ownership and revenues from more than 160 oil wells in two West Texas counties.
The jury in Pecos on Wednesday ruled in favor of Pickens’ company, Mesa Petroleum Partners, after a three-week trial.
Pickens had claimed two Midland-based energy companies and one from Dallas had conspired to cheat him out of ownership interests and profits involving more than 160 wells in Reeves and Pecos counties.
Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Pickens, says the Texas tycoon maintained that Mesa’s oil and gas interests were taken illegally.
Paul Rudnicki, chief financial officer of Dallas-based J. Cleo Thompson, says his company believes the evidence doesn’t support the verdict that the firm breached the joint operating agreement.