Mealey's Fracking : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Fracking

October 06, 2022
Exxon Seeks Correction Of $71.61M Judgment It Won To Put A Finer Point On Award

HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil Corp. has filed a reply brief in Texas state appellate court arguing that a judgment handed down in September, in which Exxon won a $71.61 million jury award, should be corrected to modify one sentence in the ruling to indicate that the award the appellate court handed down is what the trial court should have awarded in the first instance.
October 06, 2022
Fracking Company Says Lease Dispute Fails As Plaintiffs Fail To Show Injury

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A hydraulic fracturing operator has filed a reply brief in Montana federal court contending that it should dismiss a lease dispute brought by environmental groups because the district court does not have jurisdiction to cancel valid existing leases and the plaintiffs cannot show injury from those leases.
October 06, 2022
Agency Denies Liability In Federal Fracking Permit Case, Says Jurisdiction Lacking

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and other federal agencies filed an answer in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denying that they violated federal law when they approved applications for permits to drill (APDs) for fracking in New Mexico’s Permian Basin and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.
October 05, 2022
Fracking Operator Says It Has No Duty To Plug Wells, Lawsuit Defies State Rules

WHEELING, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing operator has moved in West Virginia federal court to dismiss a putative class action by landowners who sued over abandoned wells, arguing that the lawsuit defies state statutes and fails to state a claim. It also contends that state regulatory officials have told the company that it has no current duty to plug the wells in question.
October 05, 2022
Groups Amend Case Against Agencies, Say Fracking Lease Sales At Odds With Evidence

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmental groups have filed an amended complaint in District of Columbia federal court challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) approval of the sale of 173 oil and gas lease parcels for fracking on 144,000 acres of public lands across eight western states, contending that the decision to hold the lease sales was at odds with “the voluminous body of scientific evidence” contained within the DOI’s own environmental assessments (EAs) specific to those leases.
October 05, 2022
Company Sues Former Employees For Defrauding It Of Fracking Patent Royalties

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A company that makes equipment for use in hydraulic fracturing operations has sued two men in Texas federal court contending that they have stolen royalty payments for certain devices by falsely representing that they were co-inventors of the patents for those items.
October 05, 2022
Group Says Agencies Violated Federal Law By Approving California Offshore Drilling

LOS ANGELES — An environmental advocacy group has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and other agencies in California federal court contending that they violated federal laws when they authorized offshore oil and gas activities off Huntington Beach on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
October 05, 2022
Pipeline Company Tells 3rd Circuit Securities Fraud Case Is Not A Class Action

PHILADELPHIA — A hydraulic fracturing pipeline company has petitioned the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for permission to appeal a class certification order in a securities fraud lawsuit related to permitting and construction activities for the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Pennsylvania. The company argues that the lower court committed reversible error by applying an improper standard pertaining to pricing of the securities at issue.
September 28, 2022
9th Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc Case Over ‘Hard Look’ Required By NEPA

SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied a petition for rehearing en banc of its earlier decision that reversed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of federal agencies in a hydraulic fracturing dispute in which the panel found that the agencies had failed to take a “hard look” required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when they approved drilling in the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of California.
September 21, 2022
3rd Circuit Says Legislators’ Challenge To Delaware River Basin Fracking Ban Fails

PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Republican Pennsylvania legislators cannot sue the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) for its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing on grounds that none of them has standing as trustees of Pennsylvania’s public natural resources under the state’s Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA) because the DRBC’s ban on fracking has not cognizably harmed that public trust.
September 21, 2022
Landowners Say Supreme Court Review Of Pipeline Case Needed In Light Of Conflict

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Landowners are seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of a federal appellate court decision in a hydraulic fracturing pipeline dispute the landowners say is in direct conflict with controlling Supreme Court precedent in a separate pipeline case.
September 16, 2022
Religious Order Faces Stiff Questioning From 3rd Circuit In Fracking Pipeline Case

PHILADELPHIA — The attorney for an order of Roman Catholic women faced immediate and more pointed questioning than did the attorney for a hydraulic fracturing pipeline company during oral arguments before the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 15 as they debated the order’s rights to damages under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in connection with a pipeline that crosses under the order’s property.
September 16, 2022
Energy Company Cannot Shake Investor Claims Over Failed Oilfield

HOUSTON — A federal magistrate judge in Texas on Sept. 15 recommended that a motion to dismiss filed by an energy company and certain of its senior executives in a securities class action be denied because the lead plaintiffs have sufficiently pleaded an actionable misrepresentation and scienter in alleging that the defendants misstated the economic viability of a Texas oilfield in violation of federal securities law.
September 13, 2022
Judge: Agency’s Actions In ‘Insufferable’ Fracking Permit Case Were ‘Arbitrary’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sept. 9 ruled that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) lacked the authority to rescind a hydraulic fracturing lease and said it acted in an “arbitrary and capricious manner” when it disapproved a hydraulic fracturing operator’s application for a permit to drill in a case that the judge called “insufferable.”
September 12, 2022
Pipeline Company To Pay Combined $17.8M In Fines And Compensation For Oil Spill

SANTA ANA, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Sept. 8 announced that following the filing of misdemeanor charges, Amplify Energy Corp. and its affiliates agreed to pay $4.9 million in fines and penalties to the state related to a pipeline oil spill. Amplify will also pay, separately, a $7.1 million federal fine and $5.8 million in compensation for expenses incurred during the response to the spill.
September 09, 2022
Wyoming Court: Netback Statute Allows Deduction Of Pipeline Fees In Some Cases

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Supreme Court on Aug. 24 partially affirmed and partially reversed and remanded a decision of the Wyoming Board of Equalization regarding an energy company’s tax deduction of pipeline reservation fees, ruling that the state Legislature intended the netback valuation statute to allow producers to fully deduct their pipeline reservation fees as long as they moved some gas on the pipeline system.
September 09, 2022
Briefly: Pipeline Company Says Contamination Case Is Barred By Montana State Law

BILLINGS, Mont. — A pipeline company on Aug. 19 filed a reply brief in Montana federal court contending that a drinking water contamination case brought against it by the U.S. government should be dismissed because the claim is barred by a state law that is “comparable” to the Clean Water Act (CWA).
September 09, 2022
Groups Opposing Federal Leases Say Fracking Companies’ Dismissal Theory Fails

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Environmental groups challenging federal hydraulic fracturing leases on Aug. 30 filed a brief in Montana federal court contending that it should deny a motion to dismiss their lawsuit because fracking operators misstate the law and the facts and fail to cite cases that support their theories for dismissal.
September 09, 2022
Oil Company Denies Breach Of Contract Claim In Fracking Services Payment Dispute

HOUSTON — An oil and gas company on Aug. 19 filed an answer in Texas federal court denying all allegations against it by a hydraulic fracturing services company and contending that it has paid for all services rendered under a contract between the parties, contrary to the services company’s allegations.
September 09, 2022
Company: Effort To Preclude Evidence In Fracking Injury Case Is ‘Improper’

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — An equipment manufacturer on Sept. 1 filed a brief in Pennsylvania federal court opposing as “improper” a motion in limine to preclude it from arguing that a plaintiff is liable for negligent conduct in relation to his injury unloading sand for hydraulic fracturing operations while using a machine made by the defendant.
September 09, 2022
Briefly: Class Seeks Pipeline Company’s Documents For Securities Fraud Action

PHILADELPHIA — Plaintiffs in a securities fraud class action on Aug. 30 moved in Pennsylvania federal court to compel the production of documents from a hydraulic fracturing pipeline company related to a district attorney’s investigation into the pipeline company’s projects in Chester County, Pa. The plaintiffs also argue that the pipeline company misled them about the lawful procurement of valid permits for construction.
September 08, 2022
Groups Say Federal Agencies’ Violations Call For Fracking Permits To Be Vacated

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two environmental groups on Sept. 7 sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in District of Columbia federal court challenging its decision to grant permits for hydraulic fracturing, arguing that the agency violated federal laws by not taking a “hard look” at a specific project’s environmental impact and, therefore, the court should vacate the permits and declare them “arbitrary, capricious and unlawful.”
September 07, 2022
Investors In Fracking Sand Fraud Case Seek Improper Damages, Company Says

WILMINGTON, Del. — A company and its CEO on Sept. 1 filed a letter brief in Delaware federal court contending that investors who sued them for alleged securities fraud related to the purchase of equity interests in a company that mines and sells sand specifically for use in hydraulic fracturing operations seek an allocation of damages that is inconsistent with the record in the case.
September 07, 2022
Judge Says Federal Agency Did Not Violate Law By Postponing Fracking Lease Sales

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A federal judge in Wyoming on Sept. 2 ruled that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) did not violate federal law when it postponed hydraulic fracturing lease sales in five western states because evidence indicated that the environmental assessments performed in association with those lease sales were not sufficient.
September 06, 2022
Stockholder Says Well Services Company Violated Securities Laws In Fracking Merger

NEW YORK — On Sept. 2, a shareholder in a hydraulic fracturing well services company sued the company and its board of directors in New York federal court alleging that they violated federal securities laws when they tried to sell the company to another fracking operator and when they tried to prevent a stockholder vote on the transaction.