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Mealey's Fracking

  • January 12, 2026

    Mineral Rights Holders Appeal Well Unitization Ruling To 5th Circuit

    NEW ORLEANS — A mineral rights holding company has appealed to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a decision by a Louisiana federal judge to dismiss the holding company’s claims against a hydraulic fracturing operator on grounds that because a Pugh clause in a mineral lease between the parties “lacks the clarity necessary to encompass” compulsory unitization of wells, the lease was indivisible despite periods in which certain wells were not producing.

  • January 09, 2026

    Judge Denies Oil Company’s Bid For Injunction In Fracking Contract Breach Case

    TOPEKA, Kan. — A federal judge in Kansas on Jan. 8 denied an oil company’s motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the minority owner of leasing rights from conducting hydraulic fracturing operations during the pendency of the oil company’s lawsuit against the minority owner for allegations of breach of contract. The judge said that the oil company failed to “meet its burden to sustain the extraordinary remedy” it requested.

  • January 09, 2026

    Judge: Leaseholders’ Claims Fail In Antitrust, Conspiracy Case Against Drillers

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a lawsuit brought by royalty interest holders who own oil and gas leases in the Marcellus Shale play, ruling that the interest holders lack standing to bring their antitrust claims against hydraulic fracturing operators because they were not injured in a manner consistent with the protections of the Sherman Act. The judge also held that the plaintiffs’ conspiracy and breach of contract claims failed.

  • January 09, 2026

    Texas Panel Denies Fracking Operator Relief From Order To Produce Documents

    HOUSTON — A Texas appellate panel has denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by a hydraulic fracturing operator in a dispute with royalty owners over an audit of wells, refusing to grant the fracking company relief from two requests that require production of documents relating to 3,000 wells over a period of eight years.

  • January 09, 2026

    High Court To Hear Dispute Over Time Limit For Federal Removal Of Pipeline Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has set an argument date for a case in which an energy company and the Michigan attorney general dispute whether federal courts have the authority to excuse the 30-day procedural time limit for federal removal with respect to the attorney general’s state court lawsuit that sought to shut down operation of the company’s oil and gas pipeline on grounds that it posed a “risk of release.”

  • January 09, 2026

    South Dakota Court: Sale Of Energy Ownership Interests Not Done Under Duress

    PIERRE, S.D. — The South Dakota Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that found that principals in an energy company were not under economic duress when they entered an agreement and sold their ownership interests to other parties in the oil and gas industry and, therefore, the principals are not entitled to damages because they failed to show that the operating agreement had been breached.

  • January 09, 2026

    Texas Panel Affirms Judgment Against Family In Dispute Over Lease Negotiation

    SAN ANTONIO — A Texas appellate panel has ruled that a trial court did not err when it granted summary judgment on negligence claims brought by a family against a law firm in connection with its negotiation of a hydraulic fracturing lease on the family’s behalf because the family failed to file a timely response to the firm’s no evidence summary judgment motion.  The panel also determined that the family’s claims for deceptive trade practices and breach of fiduciary failed because they were “fractured negligence claims cast as different causes of action.”

  • January 07, 2026

    Italian Company Tells High Court LNG Contract Claims Were Improperly Precluded

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Italian energy company filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it was deprived of its day in court because a New York state court found that it was precluded from bringing claims in litigation due to the res judicata effect of an arbitration award in a dispute between its subsidiary and affiliates of another energy company relating to a similar dispute over the parties’ agreement for the handling and sale of liquid natural gas (LNG).

  • January 06, 2026

    Fracking Operator Refutes Equipment Supplier’s Contract Breach Counterclaim

    DENVER — An energy company has filed a brief in Colorado federal court arguing that it should dismiss a counterclaim brought against it by a hydraulic fracturing equipment supplier and it should enter judgment in favor of the energy company on its claims that the 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.  The energy company says the counterclaim “fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and fails to state facts sufficient to entitle Blueprint to the relief sought.”

  • December 18, 2025

    Fracking Operator Says Injury Case Fails Because Claims Are ‘Legally Deficient’

    PITTSBURGH — A hydraulic fracturing operator on Dec. 17 filed a reply brief in Pennsylvania federal court arguing that it should dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of minors who contend that the company is liable for damages because the claims are “unsupported and legally deficient.”

  • December 18, 2025

    Motion To Dismiss $40M Fraud Case Fails To Engage Complaint, Plaintiff Says

    TYLER, Texas — A receiver for multiple entities has filed a brief in Texas federal court opposing a motion to dismiss her fraud lawsuit against individuals and companies related to nonexistent hydraulic fracturing technology, arguing that one of the defendants who moved to dismiss the case failed to engage with the complaint “in any material manner” and did not meet his burden under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).

  • December 17, 2025

    Energy Companies Sued In State Court Over Unplugged Wells In Los Angeles Oil Field

    LOS ANGELES — Citing an “unmitigated threat” to surrounding communities through the leak of toxic pollutants, Los Angeles County and the people of California filed a complaint in a state court against the operators of numerous unplugged oil and gas wells within the county’s Inglewood Oil Field (IOF), alleging violations of the state’s civil code and unfair competition law (UCL).

  • December 17, 2025

    Company’s Communication With Other Operator’s Lessors Is Protected, Panel Says

    AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas state appellate panel has affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of an energy company in a dispute over communications the company had with residents who already had leases with another hydraulic fracturing operator, finding that the communications in question fall squarely within the realm of public concern; therefore, they were protected under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA).

  • December 17, 2025

    ConocoPhillips: Groups Are Not Entitled To Any Relief In Arctic Drilling Dispute

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc. on Dec. 16 filed a preliminary answer in Alaska federal court as an intervenor defendant in a dispute between Native American groups and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum related to plans to conduct hydraulic fracturing operations in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), in which ConocoPhillips denies that the groups are entitled to any relief.

  • December 16, 2025

    Groups Seek Order Declaring Federal Defendants’ Offshore Permit Approval Unlawful

    LOS ANGELES — Two environmental groups have moved in California federal court seeking summary judgment in their lawsuit against Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and others related to claims that they violated federal law related to a fracking company’s offshore drilling permit.  The environmental groups contend that “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact,” and the groups insist that they “are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”

  • December 08, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Claims Against Fracking Operator In Dispute Over Well Unitization

    SHREVEPORT, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana has dismissed all claims brought against a hydraulic fracturing operator by a mineral rights holding company, ruling that because a Pugh clause in a mineral lease in between the parties “lacks the clarity necessary to encompass” compulsory unitization of wells, the lease was indivisible despite periods in which certain wells were not producing.  As a result, the judge said that the claims against the fracking company were “moot.”

  • December 05, 2025

    Energy Company, Federal Agency Deny New Claims In Amended Offshore Complaint

    LOS ANGELES — An energy company and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) have filed separate answers in California federal court responding to an amended complaint brought by an environmental group over disputed oil and gas operations in the Santa Ynez Unit, an offshore drilling area along the California coast.  The DOI denies all claims, and the energy company, Sable Offshore Corp., contends that the plaintiffs lacks standing to raise some or all of its claims.

  • December 05, 2025

    Panel Says Commission Did Not Err In Approving Fracking Unitization Despite Objections

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An appeals panel in West Virginia has ruled that the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission of West Virginia did not commit error when it approved a unitization application by a hydraulic fracturing operator despite the objections of a group that possesses an ownership interest in one of the tracts of land that was included in unit.

  • December 04, 2025

    Panel Affirms Ruling In Part, Reduces Award By $4.98M In Dispute Over Disposal Wells

    EASTLAND, Texas — A Texas appellate panel has affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded in part a dispute over the interpretation and application of a right of first refusal provision in a surface use and compensation agreement related to oil and gas operations.  The panel ruled that an energy company’s interpretation of the contract was not correct, but it found that a $9.3 million damages award should be reduced by $4,982,043.68.

  • December 04, 2025

    Chevron: Environmental Groups Lack Standing To Sue For Federal Offshore Lease Sale

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chevron Corp. has filed an answer in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as an intervenor defendant in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups challenging the “unlawful decision” of Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and others to hold a sale for offshore hydraulic fracturing leases, arguing that the District Court lacks jurisdiction and that the groups lack standing to bring their claims.

  • December 03, 2025

    Quoting ‘Hamlet,’ Fracking Operator Says Mineral Rights Company Protests Too Much

    AUSTIN, Texas — A hydraulic fracturing operator that is embroiled in a royalty dispute with a company that owns the underlying fee oil and gas mineral interest in a tract of land has filed a reply brief in Texas federal court contending that the way the company presents its arguments “resembles Hamlet, Act II when Gertrude states ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks.’”

  • December 02, 2025

    Energy Transfer, ARCO To Pay $3.3 Million Penalty For Petroleum Contamination

    PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has announced that it reached a consent order and agreement with Energy Transfer LLC and Atlantic Richfield Co. that requires the companies to pay a $3.3 million civil penalty for violations of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law (CSL), Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act (STSP) and Land Recycling Act (LRA).

  • December 01, 2025

    Group Sues Colorado Governor Saying Charges On Oil, Gas Production Violate Law

    DENVER — A nonprofit group has sued Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in state court, arguing that a state Senate bill that was enacted in 2024 violates state law because the charges it levies on oil and gas production qualify as taxes and not fees. The group also says the bill violates the single-subject requirements in the Colorado Constitution “by joining two separate ‘fees’ to fund at least two separate and distinct government purposes.”

  • November 24, 2025

    California Attorney General Opposes Federal Plan To Start Offshore Fracking

    OAKLAND, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta has issued a statement pushing back on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) plan to open the coast of California to offshore hydraulic fracturing operations, opposing President Donald J. Trump by name and declaring that California is “not a rich man’s playground.”

  • November 21, 2025

    House Of Representatives Passes Resolution Reversing Petroleum Reserve Protection

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed Senate Joint Resolution 80 (SJR 80), which uses the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overturn a resource management plan (RMP) from the Biden administration that withdrew from oil and gas production millions of acres in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska.