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

Mealey's Fracking

August 07, 2024
Panel Affirms Dismissal Of Damages Case Related To Fracking Well Operation

BATON ROUGE, La. — A state appeals panel in Louisiana on Aug. 7 affirmed a lower court’s ruling which dismissed with prejudice a claim brought by an oil and gas production company against Halliburton Energy Services Inc. (HESI) seeking damages for injury to a well that the production company said was caused by a coring gun provided by HESI which had been used in well operations.
August 07, 2024
Fracking Advocates: Lease Cancellation ‘Inconsistent’ With Agency’s Regulations

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An industrial development group that advocates for hydraulic fracturing has filed a reply brief in Alaska federal court contending that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) cancellation of federal fracking leases was “inconsistent with fundamental and well-established principals of both common-law and statutory due process, and was inconsistent” with the DOI’s own regulations.
August 06, 2024
Panel Reverses, Remands Case Over Drilling Rights, Says Contract Is ‘Unambiguous’

WOODSFIELD, Ohio — An appellate panel in Ohio has reversed and remanded a mineral rights dispute, ruling that an assignment of interest dating to 2007 is “unambiguous” and limits the drilling rights in question to a maximum depth of 4,000 feet. The panel also concluded that a 21-year statute of limitations also applies to the case; therefore, the trial court erred when it ruled in favor of property owners who claimed ownership over the deep rights involved in a drilling contract.
August 06, 2024
Company: 10th Circuit Must Reverse Royalty Ruling, Contract ‘Wrongly Interpreted’

DENVER — An oil and gas company on Aug. 5 filed a reply brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that it should reverse a hydraulic fracturing royalty ruling because the lower court wrongly interpreted a 50% obligation portion of the future royalty calculation method in the fracking contract to mean that an energy company is limited in the royalties it pays to the oil and gas company.
August 06, 2024
4th Circuit Says It Lacks Jurisdiction In West Virginia Abandoned Wells Case

RICHMOND, Va. — A panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 5 ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to rule on an appeal brought by a hydraulic fracturing operator in a protracted dispute over abandoned wells because the order being appealed, which denied the operator summary judgment on its claim that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiffs failed to join necessary parties, was not final.
August 05, 2024
Fracking Plaintiffs Want Stay Lifted To Pursue New Trial In Royalty Dispute

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Plaintiffs in a hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute on Aug. 2 moved in Ohio federal court to lift a stay so post-trial proceedings can continue as they seek a new trial after a jury determined that the plaintiffs had not reserved their rights under the leases.
August 01, 2024
Fracking Operator Says Oil Company Damaged Its Well, Did Not Follow Standards

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A hydraulic fracturing operator has sued an oil and gas exploration and production company in New Mexico federal court, alleging that it is liable for damages to a well caused by the hydraulic fracture treatment and the company’s general failures to follow recognized industry standards and act as a reasonable prudent operator.
July 31, 2024
Worker Seeks Damages For Injury At Fracking Site, Also Claims Discrimination

OKLAHOMA CITY — A worker who alleges that he was injured while performing his duties on a hydraulic fracturing rig has sued a well services company and the fracking operator that owned the well where the incident took place, seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
July 29, 2024
Panel: Fracking Operator ‘Explicitly Authorized’ To Install Water Pipeline

ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel has affirmed a lower court ruling that granted summary judgment to a hydraulic fracturing operator in a surface use dispute on grounds that the agreement between the parties was “unambiguous and explicitly authorized” the fracking company to install water pipelines on a landowner’s property as part of oil and gas extraction activities.
July 26, 2024
Court Says Fracking Company Did Not Exhaust Administrative Remedies In Fee Dispute

HARRISBURG, Pa. — In an unpublished opinion, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that an energy company did not exhaust its administrative remedies in opposing fees levied on it by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PUC) related to hydraulic fracturing wells, therefore the company’s petition for a judgment declaring that it was not responsible to pay the fees was dismissed.
July 25, 2024
Utah: National Monuments Case Should Be Reopened Or Else State Will Suffer Harm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The state of Utah has filed a reply brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that it should reopen a lawsuit that has been stayed for three years pertaining to former President Donald J. Trump’s decision to reduce the size of two national monuments in the state, in part for hydraulic fracturing purposes, because if the stay remains in place, the state will suffer harm.
July 12, 2024
Companies Deny Breach Of Contract Claims Related To Marcellus Shale Operations

WHEELING, W.Va. — Hydraulic fracturing operators have filed a joint answer in West Virginia federal court denying allegations brought in a complaint filed by a company that holds a lease to oil and gas rights that contends that the companies breached their contract by drilling fracking wells through the subsurface of leaseholder’s property without proper authority.
July 12, 2024
Groups Say Federal Agency’s Approval Of ExxonMobil’s Lease Violated Multiple Laws

LOS ANGELES — Environmental groups have sued the federal agencies in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, contending that their approval of ExxonMobil Corp.’s offshore oil and gas drilling lease violates multiple laws because the government’s determination that the lease was in the national interest failed to “failed to consider several highly relevant factors.”
July 11, 2024
Fracking Companies Violated Antitrust Laws By Controlling Oil Production, Man Says

PORTLAND, Maine — A man has filed a putative class action in Maine federal court against a small group of hydraulic fracturing operators, arguing that they violated federal and state antitrust laws when they conspired to “coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production” as a means to controlling the price of gasoline and setting it at an “artificially high level.”
July 11, 2024
Fracking Operator Says Appeal Of Injunction In Mineral Rights Dispute Is ‘Unripe’

CINCINNATI — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a response brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that it should affirm a lower court’s decision that granted the company a preliminary injunction in a mineral rights dispute because the challenges to the injunction brought by a land management company are “unripe and lack substantive merit.”
July 11, 2024
Fracking Operators Say Permits Complied With NEPA, Agency Used ‘Reasoned Analysis’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hydraulic fracturing operators that are intervenor defendants in a dispute over federal fracking permits issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) have filed a reply brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that it should deny the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, grant the intervenors’ motion for summary judgment and find that the DOI gave “reasoned analysis and responses” and complied with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it granted the permits in question.
July 11, 2024
Mineral Rights Owners: Defense Expert Lacks Methodology, Evidence Rules Not Met

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mineral rights holders have filed a reply brief in Ohio federal court arguing that it should exclude the testimony of defense expert David M. Posner on grounds that he has “no discernible methodology and a limited factual basis for his opinions” and that the defendants failed to meet their burden of showing that it is more likely than not that Posner’s testimony will be admissible pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
July 11, 2024
Split Texas High Court Says Company Failed To Make Fair Offer On Forced Pooling

AUSTIN, Texas — In a split decision, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Railroad Commission’s (RRC) conclusion that an oil and gas company failed to make a fair and reasonable offer to voluntarily pool mineral resources was “reasonable.” The dissenting justices said the company did in fact make a fair offer.
July 11, 2024
Putative Class Says Fracking Operator Contaminated Their Drinking Water

PITTSBURGH — A group of residents have filed a putative class action against a hydraulic fracturing operator arguing that their water supply has been contaminated by fracking waste fluid that was released into the environment when an incident at a well caused a geyser to erupt and the leaked fluid got into a local aquifer.
July 09, 2024
Companies: Groups Cannot Use ‘Gimmicks’ To Create Standing In Fracking Permit Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Intervenors on July 8 filed a joint brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that environmental groups that challenge federal hydraulic fracturing permits issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) pertaining to New Mexico’s Permian Basin and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin lack standing to bring their case because Article III of the U.S. Constitution “does not allow pleading gimmicks designed to circumvent the fundamental requirements of a concrete, particularized injury-in-fact traceable to each challenged agency action and redressable by the court.”
July 09, 2024
Landowners: Fracking Operators Improperly Deducted Expenses From Royalty Payments

LISBON, Ohio — A group of landowners have sued hydraulic fracturing companies in Ohio state court contending that they improperly deducted “post-production” expenses from royalty payments they owed on operations in the mineral estate the companies leased from the plaintiffs located in the Utica Shale play.
July 03, 2024
Judge Allows Discovery To Be Reopened Before Trial In Groundwater Pollution Case

OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that an oil and gas exploration company that is a defendant in a groundwater contamination case may reopen discovery for the limited purpose of inspecting specific items on the plaintiffs’ property before trial because the plaintiffs will “face no undue or unfair prejudice” as a result.
June 28, 2024
COMMENTARY: Courts Must, As Recently Reminded, Follow The Law In Rule 702 Expert Testimony Determinations

By Erin Sheley
July 01, 2024
Putative Class Seeks Damages For Energy Companies’ Alleged Gas Price Conspiracy

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Residents and companies have filed a putative class action in New Mexico federal court contending that energy companies violated the Sherman Act by conspiring to “coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production, which has had the purpose and effect of fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of crude oil in and throughout the United States, and worldwide.”
June 28, 2024
High Court Overrules Chevron Deference, Changes Standard For Regulatory Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 voted 6-3 to overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference as incompatible with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations, changing governing precedent for federal courts reviewing agencies’ regulatory actions.