OIPA Leader Troubled by Koch Trial Verdict.Business Editors OKLAHOMA CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 23, 1999 One of the leaders of Oklahoma's largest energy group responded negatively to today's verdict in the federal trial against Koch Industries Koch Industries, Inc. (pronounced "koke") is a private corporation based in Wichita, Kansas. According to Forbes Magazine, it is the largest privately owned company in the world by revenue (surpassing Cargill in 2005 with the acquisition of Georgia-Pacific), with subsidiaries . "I am saddened, but not surprised, by the verdict," Mickey Thompson Marion Lee "Mickey" Thompson (born December 7, 1928 - died March 16, 1988) was an American off-road racing legend. He won many championships as a racer, and later formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG). , executive vice president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association (OIPA OIPA Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association ) said. "I sat through several days of testimony. Having been exposed to just a small fraction of the negativism negativism /neg·a·tiv·ism/ (neg´ah-ti-vizm?) opposition to suggestion or advice; behavior opposite to that appropriate to a specific situation or against the wishes of others, including direct resistance to efforts to be moved. heaped upon Koch Industries by the plaintiff's legal team...I can imagine how the jurors must've felt swamped. "This constant drumbeat See Drumbeat 2000. of half-truths and misconstrued logic, honed for 10 years by an embittered em·bit·ter tr.v. em·bit·tered, em·bit·ter·ing, em·bit·ters 1. To make bitter in flavor. 2. To arouse bitter feelings in: was embittered by years of unrewarded labor. William Koch and focused like a laser beam on this jury for the past three months, led to this unfortunate outcome. This verdict, if it isn't overturned on appeal, will send shockwaves through the domestic oil industry as crude purchasers are forced to reassess the way they've conducted business for decades," Thompson said. The OIPA official said the value of crude oil -- especially crude oil on marginal leases or crude oil of less-than-good quality -- could decline as purchasers take a much more stringent approach to how they acquire these less desirable barrels. "This verdict is a damaging blow to the entire oil producing sector." Thompson voiced optimism that an appeals court would better understand the complex nature of the case and would recognize that the absence of any producers, any royalty owners -- especially the Osage Nation The Osage Nation is a Native American tribe in the United States, which is mainly based in Osage County, Oklahoma, but can still be found throughout America. The Osage call themselves Ni-U-Kon-Ska, and were originally called Wazházhe -- and, maybe most tellingly, the absence of the federal government from the plaintiff's side of the case could mean only one thing: these allegations had no merit. "Numerous well-respected independent producers, most of them OIPA leaders (including Jack Graves of Tulsa and Tommy Hull of Pawhuska) offered some of the trial's strongest testimony that they had never had a problem selling their oil to Koch. I'm not sure why this message didn't come through loud and clear." |
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