[co-author: Dominic Salinas - Associate]

Last week we discussed the pitfalls of joint bidding for oil and gas properties. We didn’t say you can’t do it. It’s like domestic life: There are ways you can tell your beloved that dress makes her look  …, well, never mind. You can do it, … in the right way and for the right reasons.

Joint bidding arrangements and AMI agreements are common in the upstream sector, so how do you go about it?

Joint bidding done successfully

In Gunnison and SG  (from last week), the government didn’t dispute the companies’ joint bidding activity after their agreement was set forth in an AMI and an Option and Participation Agreement. The DOJ determined that the AMI was an integral part of a broad pro-competitive collaboration between the two companies to jointly develop leasehold interests and create a new pipeline system in the area. The agreement allowed the companies to combine their resources and allocate risk. The DOJ concluded that the agreement was “reasonably necessary to achieve the potential benefits of their broad collaboration.” As the Gunnison/SG case suggests, today’s antitrust regulators regard lawful joint bidding arrangements as legitimate means for producers to achieve efficient production.

Even the government likes it

The Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors, published in 2000 by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, recognized that joint bidding and joint ventures often enhance competition by allowing new players to enter the market and achieve objectives that would be unattainable if they were required to act alone.

For joint ventures not deemed as per se unlawful, applying the Standard Oil rule of reason, pro-competitive benefits of the collaborative arrangement are weighed against the restraints that the agreement may place on free competition. The major factors outlined in last week’s case against Gunnison and SG can be used to determine whether a joint bidding agreement would be considered an unreasonable restraint on trade in violation of the Sherman Act or a pro-competitive and beneficial arrangement.

There are plenty of benefits to a legal joint-bidding arrangement. Smaller producers can become players in increasingly expensive upstream and midstream activity while allocating the potential risk appropriately. That is an increasingly important option in today’s price environment.

The takeaway

Engage in joint bidding in the right way and for the right reasons.

So, find partner and win a pep talk from Mavis Staples. You’ll be in the big times that will never end; let’s party like it’s 2013!