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Mealey's Fracking

  • January 21, 2025

    Fracking Proponents Say Alaska Lease Appeal ‘Moot’ In Light Of Agency’s Report

    SAN FRANCISCO — Hydraulic fracturing proponents who sued the Biden administration over the delay caused by a temporary halt of the hydraulic fracturing lease program in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska moved in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss their appeal on Jan. 20 on grounds that the final record of decision (ROD) for ANWR’s Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Program issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on Dec. 8 “completed DOI’s supplemental environmental review and expressly lifts the Moratorium for the oil and gas program rendering all claims in this appeal moot.”

  • January 21, 2025

    President Trump’s Orders Reopen Arctic To Fracking, Call For ‘Unleashing’ Energy

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Of the many executive orders President Donald J. Trump issued Jan. 20, three of them pertained to energy policy, with one declaring a national energy emergency, one rescinding the cancellation of hydraulic fracturing leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and another “unleashing American energy” by encouraging energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including on the Outer Continental Shelf.

  • January 16, 2025

    Abandoned Wells, Groundwater Case Is Valid Based On Fraud Allegation, Judge Says

    DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado has denied two motions to dismiss a lawsuit over abandoned hydraulic fracturing wells that the plaintiffs contend pose a threat to human health and have the potential to contaminate groundwater, ruling that the plaintiffs have “sufficiently alleged fraud with particularity” against the company and its principals.

  • January 10, 2025

    Fracking Operator Says Fine Of Nearly $5.9M Violates Its Constitutional Rights

    DENVER — A hydraulic fracturing operator has sued the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) in state court arguing that it should not have to pay $5,897,892.10 in penalties related to notices of violation issued by the ECMC because “the extreme breadth” of the order calling for the penalties “violates the Commission’s mandate to regulate oil and gas activity to protect the public health, safety, welfare and the environment in a ‘reasonable manner.’”

  • January 10, 2025

    Plaintiffs Say Oil Producers Engaged In ‘Conspiracy’ Amounting To Price Fixing

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Plaintiffs have filed a putative class action complaint against numerous oil and gas producers in New Mexico federal court contending that they have engaged in a “conspiracy to coordinate, and ultimately constrain,” domestic shale oil production, which has amounted to “fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of crude oil,” in violation of the Sherman Act and various state laws.

  • January 09, 2025

    Alaska Sues Federal Agencies For Alleged Coastal Plain Fracking Lease Violations

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in Alaska federal court contending that the agency has violated Congress’ statutory mandate that the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be opened to oil and gas leasing and development.

  • January 09, 2025

    Final Approval Granted To U.S. Portion Of Fracking Securities Global Settlement

    BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to the approximately $7 million U.S. portion of a global settlement in a case brought by investors alleging that an oil and gas exploration company violated securities laws.

  • January 08, 2025

    Oil Companies To Pay $5.6M Penalty For ‘Gun Jumping Violation’ Of Antitrust Laws

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission said Jan. 7 that three crude oil producers will pay a $5.6 million civil penalty to settle allegations that they committed a “gun jumping violation” when they disregarded their obligations under the federal law governing mergers and transferred “significant operational control” over one of the companies’ business operations to the other parties without observing the proper waiting period.

  • January 07, 2025

    Panel Remands Mineral Rights Case, Says Owners Were ‘Insufficiently Compensated’

    NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 6 partially affirmed and partially reversed and remanded a complex and protracted dispute over mineral rights, ruling that although the district court correctly ruled that the mineral lease in question conveyed a gross proceeds royalty based on extrinsic evidence, the district court’s award of prejudgment interest and royalty damages “insufficiently compensated” landowners for their losses.

  • January 07, 2025

    Fracking Wells At Issue In Groundwater Case Belong To Other Party, Defendants Say

    PITTSBURGH — Defendants in a class action over allegations that fracking waste fluid has contaminated residents’ water supply have filed a brief in Pennsylvania federal court arguing that the lawsuit should be dismissed with regard to both parties because the plaintiffs “unambiguously plead” that only the other defendants own and operate the hydraulic fracturing wells at issue.

  • January 07, 2025

    President Biden Prohibits Drilling In Continental Shelf As Term Draws To A Close

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Jan. 6 issued two presidential memoranda prohibiting oil and natural gas leasing in the Outer Continental Shelf areas off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska, pursuant to his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).

  • January 03, 2025

    Judge Partially Dismisses Royalty Case, Says Claim For Equitable Accounting Fails

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio has granted a hydraulic fracturing operator’s partial motion to dismiss a lawsuit involving a royalty dispute, ruling that landowners have failed to state a claim for equitable accounting and failed to state a claim for injunctive relief in a dispute over the alleged arbitrary deduction of royalties.

  • January 02, 2025

    Panel Says Fracking Operator Has Paid Royalties Due, No Issue Of Fact Exists

    DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 31 held that an oil and gas company has admitted that a hydraulic fracturing operator has paid the royalties it owes on increased gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) production, which are the only royalties due pursuant to the contract between the parties; therefore, there is no genuine issue of fact in a long-running dispute over the fracking outfit’s obligation to pay additional royalties.

  • December 20, 2024

    Drilling Company Says Some Of Mineral Rights Plaintiffs’ Claims Are Not Viable

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A drilling company on Dec. 19 filed a reply brief in Ohio federal court contending that plaintiffs suing it in a complex mineral rights lawsuit have no viable claims for unjust enrichment and arguing that the plaintiffs have waived their trespass claims.

  • December 18, 2024

    Royalty Payment Case Against Fracking Companies Is Valid, Plaintiffs Argue

    WHEELING, W.Va. — The plaintiffs who sued Southwestern Energy Co. and Southwestern Production Co. LLC (collectively, Southwestern) alleging that they paid diminished royalties regarding hydraulic fracturing mineral rights filed a brief in West Virginia federal court arguing that it should deny the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on grounds the defendants “knew and anticipated the impact on Plaintiff’s well but went forward with drilling,” saying the facts of the case “fit squarely within the negligence theory of liability under Atkinson v. Virginia.”

  • December 06, 2024

    Company: Equipment Suppliers Breached Contract By Selling Faulty Fracking Tools

    DENVER — An energy company has filed an amended complaint in Colorado federal court contending that a hydraulic fracturing equipment supplier is liable for damages for breach of contract related to equipment that malfunctioned during fracking operations at one of the company’s oil wells.

  • December 05, 2024

    Fracking Company Insists Discovery Order Should Be Stayed In Mineral Rights Case

    CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing operator filed a reply brief in West Virginia federal court on Dec. 4 contending that it should grant the company’s motion for a stay of an opinion and order that the court issued granting a motion to compel the production of documents sought by the plaintiffs in a long-running mineral rights class action.  The fracking operator argues that the plaintiffs are not entitled to such information prior to certification of a class and that the order poses a greater hardship to the company than it does to the plaintiffs.

  • December 05, 2024

    California Oil Well Bill Is An ‘Illegal Attempt’ To Stop Business, Company Says

    LOS ANGELES — An energy company has sued the state of California in state court seeking a writ of mandate for declaratory and injunctive relief and inverse condemnation related to a state law that calls for the identification and plugging of low-production oil wells, which the company says “represents an illegal attempt to coerce an individual company to stop operation of its legal business.”

  • December 10, 2024

    Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Proper Scope Of NEPA In Fracking Railway Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys presented oral arguments on Dec. 10 before the U.S. Supreme Court debating whether the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires a federal agency to study the environmental consequences of projects beyond the proximate effects caused by the specific action over which that agency has regulatory authority, specifically in relation to a case in which petitioners seek reversal of a ruling finding that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) failed to adequately examine the risk of wildfires and the impact on groundwater posed by the construction of a rail line in Utah that would carry crude oil from hydraulic fracturing operations at the shale formation in the Uinta Basin.

  • December 05, 2024

    Pennsylvania Court Affirms Sanctions In Fracking Case For ‘Egregious Conduct’

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — In an unreported opinion, a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court panel has ruled that “although unprecedented, there is more than enough evidence of egregious conduct” establishing “bad faith, harassment, unwarranted delaying tactics, and outright lying” by the attorney representing landowners in a hydraulic fracturing dispute such that the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board’s (EHB) award of sanctions against the attorney and the landowners jointly was warranted.

  • December 04, 2024

    Magistrate Judge Approves $65M Deal In Securities Case Against Fracking Operator

    HOUSTON — A federal magistrate judge in Texas issued a final judgment and order of dismissal after approving a $65 million settlement in a securities fraud lawsuit investors brought against a hydraulic fracturing operator.

  • December 04, 2024

    Company Seeks Contempt Ruling For Residents In Fracking Waste Pollution Case

    PITTSBURGH — A hydraulic fracturing operator on Dec. 3 filed a reply brief in Pennsylvania federal court arguing that a putative class of residents who argue that their water supply has been contaminated by fracking waste fluid “persist in their effort to conceal” data related to the report of one of their experts.  The fracking operator says the residents should produce the complete data or be prevented from using the expert that relies on that data.

  • December 04, 2024

    North Dakota Refutes Tribes’ Claim To Mineral Rights In Missouri Riverbed

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The state of North Dakota has filed a brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that there is “no clear evidence” of congressional intent to confer Native American tribes with ownership of the disputed Missouri Riverbed and underlying mineral interests, and it says the lack of evidence “becomes even more clear when the relevant treaties, documents, and relationships are understood in their historical context.”

  • November 27, 2024

    States, Energy Companies Tell D.C. Circuit EPA Methane Rule Violates Federal Law

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Multiple states have filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the “presumptive standards” for existing sources listed in the 2024 methane rule instituted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violate the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by “diminishing the States’ statutory authority” to create their own plans that consider their specific circumstances, including “the remaining useful life” of chemical facilities within their borders.  The same day, members of the energy sector also filed a brief contending that the EPA’s standard is “unlawful and arbitrary and capricious.”

  • November 26, 2024

    High Court To Review Delegated Oversight Of Telecommunications Subsidies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has granted two petitions for a writ of certiorari and consolidated cases concerning whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to delegate a subsidy program to a private entity, both arising out of the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine.”