Continental Resources Chairman and CEO Harold Hamm filed a lawsuit Friday against Oklahoma City oilman Mickey Thompson over a Facebook post accusing Hamm of attempting “to squelch OGS efforts to establish good science on seismicity.”
“The Oklahoma oil industry has been wrong and late to the dance on induced seismicity. Hamm’s usual insightfulness has been missing on the issue,” Thompson wrote, according the lawsuit. “As for philanthropy, Hamm has been hugely generous to OU. But the fact remains he tried to squelch OGS efforts to establish good science on seismicity. Shame on him!”
Hamm is seeking more than $75,000 in damages from “mental anguish and suffering, as well as embarrassment and humiliation.”
Hamm claims he “has suffered damage to his reputation and standing in the community and has suffered severe mental and emotional distress,” as a result of the post, according to the lawsuit.
Furthermore, Hamm is seeking an injunction that would force Thompson to remove the post from Facebook.
The post was not publically visible on Thompson’s Facebook page Tuesday.
The statement came after Environment and Energy Publishing reported OU was pursuing a $25 million grant from Hamm to build the Continental Resources Center for Energy Research and Technology while the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) was formulating its position on increased seismicity in the state.
After OU was denied the grant, the OGS found that water injection wells – used in horizontal drilling or ‘fracking’ – have “some relationship to earthquakes," according to the story.
OU President David Boren denied the report Friday and said there was no connection between the grant and the OGS position.
