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May 11, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through its Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO), announced May 8 that it will invest $36 million in federal funding for the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center to advance the commercial deployment of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies in the Bakken shale formation.
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May 11, 2026
SAN ANTONIO — A Texas appeals panel granted oil and gas company EOG Resources Inc.’s motion for a writ of mandamus in a discovery dispute pertaining to a long-running mineral rights case, ruling that the record does not support a finding that EOG waived its attorney-client privilege and holding that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering the disclosure of privileged items.
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May 08, 2026
SALT LAKE CITY — A contractor has filed notice that it is appealing to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a Utah federal judge’s dismissal of his claims that a Native American tribe breached its agreement with him in a longstanding and complex dispute over revenue the contractor said he was owed for work he performed pursuant to oil and gas leases on tribal lands. The notice was filed following a judge’s denial of the contractor’s motion to reconsider the dismissal ruling.
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May 08, 2026
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. government and pipeline operators have filed briefs in California federal court seeking to terminate a 2020 consent decree that resolved a dispute over damages from a 2015 oil spill on a beach near Santa Barbara, Calif. The government argues that the consent decree should be terminated or modified because the pipeline companies that were parties to the consent decree have complied with its terms.
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May 08, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that an energy investment fund owes damages to an oil and gas company for $1,493,418.29 in unpaid operating expenses related to federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico because the language of the operating agreements did not contain language releasing the investment fund from liability even though it had assigned its interests in the leases to another party.
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May 07, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and an affiliated agency have filed an answer in District of Columbia federal court denying a Colorado county’s allegations that the agencies violated federal laws when they authorized an amended right of way that would allow trains carrying oil obtained by hydraulic fracturing in the Uinta Basin in Utah to travel through the county.
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May 06, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The energy company XTO Energy Inc. has filed a response brief asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a lower court’s decision that ruled that a Pugh clause in a mineral lease did not apply to the compulsory unitization of wells. XTO says that when a leasehold is compelled to be unitized by the Louisiana Commissioner of Conservation, a Pugh clause must unambiguously provide that it applies to compulsory units.
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May 06, 2026
DENVER — A divided panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling in a royalty dispute between an energy company and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) related to gas production under a federal lease. The majority said that an order by the DOI that disallowed certain deductions from royalty payments was “arbitrary and capricious” and reversed the lower court’s decision affirming the order.
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May 05, 2026
LOS ANGELES — The state of California has moved in California federal court seeking a preliminary injunction and a stay of an order issued by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright that directed Sable Offshore Corp. to resume operating the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) and the Santa Ynez Pipeline System (SYPS) under the Defense Production Act (DPA), arguing that nothing in the DPA permits a federal official to order a company to act in defiance of generally applicable state laws.
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April 22, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a unanimous opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court on April 22 ruled that because the federal removal statute’s “text, structure, and context are inconsistent with equitable tolling,” Enbridge Energy LP’s removal to federal court of a lawsuit brought by the Michigan attorney general that sought to shut down a pipeline was untimely.
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April 16, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump, citing national security reasons, issued nine memoranda on April 15 granting permits that authorize Enbridge Inc., the owner of multiple pipelines, to “construct, connect, operate and maintain” pipelines for the transport of oil and petroleum products at the international border between the United States and Canada in North Dakota and Michigan.
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April 13, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A mineral rights holding company has filed an opening appeal brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that a lower court erred when it ruled that a Pugh clause in a mineral lease did not apply to the compulsory unitization of wells because the Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that any unqualified reference to “pooled unit or units” includes voluntary and compulsory units.
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April 13, 2026
GREELEY, Colo. — A hydraulic fracturing company has sued in Colorado state court two companies that operate a landfill, arguing that they are in violation of agreements reached between the parties because they have begun the process of annexing a portion of the land covered by the agreements to a nearby town and they have applied to rezone the property.
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April 10, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Environmental groups and the state of California have filed opening briefs in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that orders issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that restarted operation of the Las Flores Pipelines violate several federal laws and exceeded the agency’s authority.
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April 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on April 8 announced that it generated $592.7 million in total receipts from oil and gas sales held in the first quarter of 2026, involving 246 parcels for lease on 225,277 acres across 11 states, and another 187 parcels in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).
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April 08, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge in California has denied the U.S. government’s attempt to prevent the state of California from enforcing a law that restricts oil and gas drilling, ruling that the government did not meet its burden of showing that it is likely to establish that the law in question actually conflicts with federal law.
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April 07, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmental advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit in District of Columbia federal court against the Endangered Species Committee (ESC), known as the “God Squad,” alleging that its decision to exempt all oil and gas production activities in the Gulf of Mexico from complying with the Endangered Species Act was “founded entirely on an arbitrary National Security Finding” that was issued by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
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April 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After not meeting for more than 30 years, the Endangered Species Committee (ESC), also known as the “God Squad,” on March 31 voted unanimously to exempt all oil and gas production activities in the Gulf of Mexico from requirements to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued findings of fact on March 13 stating that oil production in the region is a matter of national security.
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March 30, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Colorado county has filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in District of Columbia federal court against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and an affiliated agency, challenging what it calls “unlawful actions” related to their authorizations of an amended right of way that would allow trains carrying oil obtained by hydraulic fracturing in the Uinta Basin in Utah to travel through the county.
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March 30, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 refused to hear Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appeal of a federal appellate court decision that rejected the state’s claim to sovereign immunity that it asserted when pipeline companies sued it for terminating an easement that is required to operate an oil and gas pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac.
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March 24, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — California on March 23 sued Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that they have engaged in “a breathtaking power grab” by ordering Sable Offshore Corp. to resume operating the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) and the Santa Ynez Pipeline System (SYPS) under the Defense Production Act (DPA).
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March 24, 2026
PITTSBURGH — Plaintiffs in a long-running hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute have filed a notice that they are appealing an order by a Pennsylvania federal judge adopting a magistrate judge’s report and granting a fracking company’s motion for summary judgment dismissal of the claims. The order on appeal also overruled the plaintiffs’ objections to the magistrate judge’s report.
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March 23, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has issued a nonprecedential per curiam opinion vacating an order of a district court, which had denied a motion for a preliminary injunction sought by residents in a dispute with hydraulic fracturing companies related to alleged contamination of their drinking water. The Third Circuit panel ruled that without a facial showing of jurisdiction pursuant to the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), it was not error for the district court to deny the injunction motion.
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March 23, 2026
TYLER, Texas — A federal magistrate judge ordered a defendant in a case brought by a receiver for multiple entities in a fraud lawsuit related to nonexistent hydraulic fracturing technology to file an answer to the amended complaint that complies with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, after the receiver moved to strike the defendant’s initial answer for a lack of good faith.
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March 18, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has directed Sable Offshore Corp. to resume operating the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) and the Santa Ynez Pipeline System (SYPS) in response to a recent executive order (EO) issued by President Donald J. Trump that delegates authority to Wright and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick under the Defense Production Act (DPA), allowing them to take action in keeping with Trump’s prior EO “Declaring a National Energy Emergency.”