Oil Tycoon Hamm May File Complaint Against Saudis For Flooding Oil Markets

US Shale tycoon Harold Hamm has plans to file an official complaint with the US Department of Commerce against Saudi Arabia, according to Bloomberg, after the Kingdom unleashed a flurry of crude oil into the markets that saw oil prices dip 30% on Monday.

And right about now, Saudi Arabia must be thankful that Hamm declined President Trump's offer to name him Energy Secretary at the end of December 2016. He has, however, continued to informally assist President Trump on matters of energy.

Hamm is no stranger to profits and losses due to OPEC actions. In 2016, Hamm raked in $3 billion from his shares of Continental Resources Inc. after OPEC managed to reach a production cut deal at a level of 32.5 million bpd.

But this time around, the situation is much different.

Hamm seeks to start an investigation with Domestic Energy Producers' Alliance, at which point the Department of Commerce would have 20 days to accept it, with a ruling due within 60 days.

"If they're found guilty of dumping as we believe now they obviously are, if they're found guilty of that, there could be countervailing duty to place upon all their imports to this country," Hamm said, adding that "that would be a drastic good measure that should be done."

Saudi Arabia has promised to ramp up production to more than 12 million bpd and has booked supertankers to haul crude oil to the US Gulf Coast, even though it has a state-run shipping company that has its own fleet of VLCCs, highlighting that additional exports will soon be forthcoming.

Hamm is determined to stop this flood of crude oil that Hamm alleges is to grab more market share. "It's illegal to do that," Hamm claims.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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