-
September 04, 2026
DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed two family members’ appeal of a contempt order to show cause issued against them for bringing claims related to alleged underpayment of mineral rights royalties against companies that operate hydraulically fractured wells in Oklahoma that were allegedly released by a related class action settlement, writing that the lower court had not yet entered a final, appealable ruling finding contempt or imposing a sanction.
-
September 04, 2026
ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ignored Arkansas Supreme Court precedent and misapplied a statutory amendment in such a way that complying with the ruling will require violating other parts of the statute and will negatively impact every natural gas well in the state, companies tell the court in seeking en banc rehearing.
-
September 04, 2026
PITTSBURGH — A split Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania panel affirmed a trial court’s decision to quash a land-use appeal, holding that objectors to a proposed gas well pad failed to show that they lived sufficiently close to the site or that they were aggrieved under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) to confer standing.
-
September 03, 2026
PITTSBURGH — An oil and gas producer sued by a class of leaseholders seeking allegedly unpaid royalties didn’t abandon its arbitration rights related to unnamed class members when it waited until after class certification to move to compel arbitration against those with arbitration clauses in their leases, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in an interlocutory appeal, vacating the trial court’s ruling and remanding.
-
September 03, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California dismissed a second amended complaint (SAC) and denied leave to file a third amended complaint in a case brought by two environmental groups that allege that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) review of a development and production plan (DPP) that preceded the March 2026 resumption of onshore pipelines that are part of the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) off the shore of California violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and, alternatively, the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
-
September 02, 2026
TOPEKA, Kan. — A split Kansas Court of Appeals panel overturned a trial court’s ruling that a 2008 judgment resolving a class action against an oil company for underpayment of mineral rights royalties from fracking had become “dormant” and unenforceable, with the majority writing that the court erroneously found the judgment was dormant despite “the continuing supervisory nature of the court’s judgment,” while a dissenting judge said the majority’s approach was “overbroad.”
-
September 02, 2026
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A lawsuit by environmental groups challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order (EO) reopening areas of the outer continental shelf (OCS) fails to show “substantial risk of imminent harm” off the shores of Alaska, a federal judge in that state ruled, granting the federal government parties’ motion to dismiss.
-
September 01, 2026
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge in Alaska vacated a 2025 decision by the secretary of the Interior that approved a land exchange between the secretary and a for-profit corporation to facilitate a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge which the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) stated at the time was part of the decision to officially open roughly 1,563,500 acres in the coastal plain of Alaska for oil and gas development.
-
September 01, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana stayed enforcement of judgment and approved an $8,350,000 supersedeas bond pending appeal after energy investment fund entities were found to owe damages to an oil and gas company for unpaid operating and decommissioning expenses related to federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
-
August 31, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A federal court in Pennsylvania correctly dismissed with prejudice claims by oil and gas lessors alleging they were defrauded of their royalties after the lessors were given two opportunities to amend their claims alleging an anticompetitive scheme to develop natural gas wells and gathering systems in and around the Marcellus Shale and failed to state viable claims, oil and gas companies argue in three appellee briefs filed in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
-
August 28, 2026
DENVER — Arguing that federal jurisdiction is lacking, a Native American tribe and related entities urged the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a lower court’s dismissal of a contractor’s latest suit in a long-running dispute over revenue the contractor says he was owed for work he performed pursuant to oil and gas leases on tribal lands.
-
August 27, 2026
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The California Regional Water Quality Control Board and Sable Offshore Corp. have reached a settlement in principle regarding a suit in state court in which the board argued that Sable intentionally ignored its obligations under the California Water Code to apply to the board for permits before proposing to discharge waste that could affect the water quality of the state, according to a minute order issued by the court.
-
August 21, 2026
LOS ANGELES — In a minute order addressing multiple motions in four related suits, a federal judge in California denied the state’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block an order from U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright authorizing, pursuant to the Defense Production Act (DPA), the reopening and continued operation of pipelines that had been shut down after a 2015 oil spill and denied in part the state’s motion to enforce a 2020 consent decree governing the operation of the pipelines.
-
August 18, 2026
TULSA, Okla. — An Oklahoma federal judge ordered that a series of oil and gas drilling permits on tribal land approved by federal agencies be set aside as unlawful after finding that the agencies acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner and failed to take the “hard look” required by federal environmental law in considering the impact of the drilling.
-
August 14, 2026
MINOT, N.D. — A North Dakota couple who sued seeking compensatory and punitive damages for a traumatic brain injury and other ailments the husband suffered due to exploding storage tanks while he was welding at a hydraulic fracturing site reached a settlement with WPX Energy Williston LLC, according to an Aug. 13 docket entry by a federal judge in North Dakota.
-
August 14, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Three consolidated petitions, two by California and one by environmental groups, challenging a December emergency special permit reopening pipelines that were shut down following an oil spill in 2015 and challenging the jurisdiction of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to issue the permit are moot as to the challenge of the December permit due to the issuance of a new permit in June, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, reserving ruling on the reviewability of the restart approval and the jurisdictional determination.
-
August 10, 2026
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio property owners and a drilling company, the parties that remained in a mineral rights case first filed in a federal court in Ohio in 2018, jointly stipulated to dismissal with prejudice after notifying the court that they negotiated an undisclosed settlement.
-
August 07, 2026
PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Aug. 6 vacated a March 2026 judgment order entered in a class lawsuit over hydraulic fracturing royalties after clarifying that a summary judgment order for the defendant issued that same day as the judgment did not fully resolve all claims.
-
August 07, 2026
MINOT, N.D. — A jury trial was reset for Oct. 26 in a federal court in North Dakota in a case brought by a couple in that state who seek compensatory and punitive damages for a traumatic brain injury and other ailments suffered when the husband was injured by exploding storage tanks at a hydraulic fracturing site while performing a welding job on the connected pipes.
-
August 07, 2026
AUSTIN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas, ruling on multiple summary judgment motions in a royalty dispute, granted summary judgment to a hydraulic fracturing operator on conversion and quiet title claims brought by a royalty interest company that entered into an oil, gas and mineral lease for 640 acres in Loving County, Texas, that entitled it to receive royalties from production.
-
August 06, 2026
FORT WORTH, Texas — A federal judge in Texas dismissed with prejudice following a settlement a lawsuit alleging that a supplier of proppants used in hydraulic fracturing misappropriated trade secrets by accessing proprietary software that an information technology services company developed and managed for the supplier’s operations.
-
August 06, 2026
OKLAHOMA CITY — A frac technician’s lawsuit against a well services company and the fracking operator for a slip-and-fall incident and alleged discrimination that followed ended after the worker accepted a $200,000 offer of judgment from Rocanda USA Inc., according to the judgment entered in a federal court in Oklahoma.
-
August 05, 2026
PITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania excluded five individuals and a sewer authority from a certified class in a long-running royalty dispute between landowners and a hydraulic fracturing company based on the parties’ agreement reached after the fracking company moved to compel arbitration.
-
August 05, 2026
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A hydraulic fracturing company, a land management company and an insurance company that issued a surety on an injunction bond have agreed to dismiss claims and counterclaims filed in a mineral rights dispute in a federal court in Ohio pursuant to a settlement agreement and purchase and sale agreement reached among the parties.
-
August 05, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — California filed a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that a June 25 order by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) granting Sable Offshore Corp. a special permit allowing for the operation of two pipelines in California is unlawful.