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Cook Inlet Energy, Cudd in legal tussle
Cook Inlet Energy LLC and a contractor are engaged in a multimillion-dollar dispute in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.
Cook Inlet Energy filed a six-page amended complaint on April 25 against Cudd Pressure Control Inc. and parent company RPC Inc.
The lawsuit said Cook Inlet Energy, operator of the Osprey offshore oil and gas platform on the inlet’s west side, contracted with Cudd in February 2011 to perform certain work on the platform.
Cook Inlet Energy paid to mobilize Cudd equipment to the platform, and Cudd began work, the suit said.
But Cudd’s equipment didn’t meet Cook Inlet Energy’s needs, and the personnel Cudd brought to the job “did not have the requisite experience and ability to perform the work in Alaska’s Cook Inlet as Cudd had represented to CIE,” the suit said.
Suit contends damages Cook Inlet Energy ended up suffering damages in the form of extra costs and delays, the suit contends.
The company disputes that it’s obligated to pay Cudd for the work performed.
The company filed with its lawsuit a copy of a March 15, 2013, letter from Cudd’s attorney to Cook Inlet Energy executives David Hall and JR Wilcox demanding payment of nearly $1.9 million and threatening to take legal action. The letter said Cook Inlet Energy, at one point, proposed paying under a six-month installment plan but never followed through.
In its lawsuit, Cook Inlet Energy is asking for a declaratory judgment that it owes nothing to Cudd and RPC. The suit also seeks unspecified damages against Cudd.
The suit said the two sides have “articulated to each other” their respective positions on the work performed on Osprey, and they “remain millions of dollars apart.”
—Wesley Loy
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