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Mealey's Fracking

  • 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.

  • November 20, 2025

    IT Company: Fracking Proppant Supplier Misappropriated Trade Secrets And Software

    FORT WORTH, Texas — An IT services company has sued an energy company in Texas federal court alleging that it misappropriated trade secrets when it misused login credentials related to proprietary software code that the IT company created and managed for the energy company’s operations as a provider of proppants to the hydraulic fracturing industry.

  • November 19, 2025

    Company Says California Oil Well Bill Conflicts With Federal Law

    LOS ANGELES — An energy company has filed a second amended complaint in California state court seeking a writ of mandate for declaratory and injunctive relief and inverse condemnation related to a state law that calls for the identification and plugging of low-production oil wells, contending that the law imposes monetary penalties that are not tied to any harm allegedly caused by the operation of specific wells and sets up a conflict with federal law.  The second amended complaint also asserts a claim under the California Tort Claims Act (CTCA).

  • November 18, 2025

    Panel: Lower Court Did Not Abuse Discretion In Denying Remand Of Royalty Dispute

    DENVER — A panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s decision in a hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute, ruling that the district court did not err when it denied the royalty owners’ motion to remand because the fracking operators’ removal of the case to federal court was not untimely.

  • November 17, 2025

    New Mexico High Court Grants Cert In Oil And Gas Pollution Suit Dismissed By Panel

    SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by several environmental groups and people surrounded by fracking sites and other oil and gas infrastructure in the state’s San Juan and Permian Basins challenging a state appellate court’s dismissal of claims that the state failed to regulate production activities that reportedly led to the harmful release of toxic chemicals and the exacerbation of climate change effects in violation of the New Mexico Constitution.

  • November 14, 2025

    Tribes Sue Federal Agencies Over Land Agreement Tied To Arctic Fracking

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Native Americans have sued Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and others in Alaska federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for violating multiple federal laws by entering into “an unlawful land exchange agreement with the King Cove Corporation (KCC) to facilitate a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge,” which the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced in October was part of the decision to officially open roughly 1,563,500 acres in the coastal plain of Alaska for hydraulic fracturing.

  • November 10, 2025

    Judge Nixes Fracking Permit Case After 10th Circuit Says Jurisdiction Is Lacking

    CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A federal judge in Wyoming on Nov. 7 dismissed a dispute over a federal  hydraulic fracturing permit, adopting a ruling by the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that agreed with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that because the claim falls under the Quiet Title Act (QTA), the federal court lacks jurisdiction.

  • November 07, 2025

    Fracking Operator: Landowners Lack Evidence Of Trespass, 3rd Circuit Appeal Fails

    PHILADELPHIA — A hydraulic fracturing operator has filed a response brief in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that an appeal by landowners who contend that the fracking company trespassed by injecting proppants and fracking fluids beneath their property to facilitate the extraction of natural gas fails for lack of evidence.

  • November 07, 2025

    Texas Panel Says Mineral Rights Contract Not Breached In Fracking Dispute

    CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Texas appellate court panel on Nov. 6 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of a hydraulic fracturing operator in an oil and gas dispute, saying that it was “not persuaded” by a mineral rights company’s understanding of the contract the parties entered into. The panel said that the evidence “conclusively establishes that the parties expressly agreed to fix the drilling unit of each well” to a particular tract of land such that the joint operating agreement (JOA) had not been breached.

  • November 07, 2025

    Legislators Ask Secretary Burgum To Pause Plan For Chaco Canyon Mineral Withdrawal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — New Mexico’s federal representatives in Congress on Nov. 6 sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum “to express extreme disappointment” about the actions taken by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which formally initiated the process of revoking a public land order (PLO) that protects a 10-mile buffer around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park (CCNHP).  The legislators say Burgum has a “legal and moral responsibility” to Native American tribes to engage in “robust Tribal consultation and community outreach” before taking any action on the existing mineral withdrawal around CCNHP.

  • November 06, 2025

    Fracking Operator Says Its Expert’s Opinions Are Based On Reliable Principles

    AUSTIN, Texas — A hydraulic fracturing operator has filed a brief in Texas federal court arguing that it should deny a motion to limit its expert’s testimony in a royalty dispute because her opinions are based on a methodology that is consistent with the reliable principles used throughout the natural gas liquids (NGL) accounting industry.

  • November 06, 2025

    Couple Seeks Damages For A Plethora Of Injuries From Explosion At Fracking Site

    MINOT, N.D. — A couple has filed an amended complaint in North Dakota federal court seeking compensatory and punitive damages for a traumatic brain injury and other ailments suffered by the husband, who was injured when storage tanks at a hydraulic fracturing site exploded.

  • November 05, 2025

    Judge OKs $167.5M Settlement In Fracking Securities Saga

    PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Nov. 4 granted final approval to a $167.5 million class action settlement in a long-running securities fraud case brought by investors who contended that a hydraulic fracturing operator had made false statements about its potential capacity for oil and gas production.

  • November 04, 2025

    Grantors In Mineral Rights Case Reserved A Floating Interest, Texas Panel Says

    EL PASO, Texas — In a complex mineral rights dispute, a Texas state appellate panel has ruled that a trial court erred in declaring that a deed’s grantors reserved a nonparticipating royalty interest in oil and gas production but said the lower court did not err when it declared that those same parties each reserved a 1/4 floating interest.

  • October 31, 2025

    Ohio Bill Would Prohibit Fracking Under Lake Erie, State Parks

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — In response to unsuccessful attempts to prevent hydraulic fracturing in state parks, lawmakers in Ohio have introduced legislation that would prohibit extracting oil or gas from under Lake Erie or a state park.

  • October 28, 2025

    Groups Broaden Case Against Trump Over Reopening Of Offshore Areas For Fracking

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Environmental groups that are challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order that reopened areas of the outer continental shelf (OCS) for hydraulic fracturing have filed a second amended and supplemental complaint in Alaska federal court,  broadening the case from a narrow challenge to Trump’s January rescission of former President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the OCS into an attack on Trump’s “unlawful attempt to undo permanent protections for certain areas” of the OCS and other regions that were instituted by former President Barack Obama.

  • October 24, 2025

    Interior Department Reopens Arctic To Fracking, Acting On Trump’s Executive Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), through the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), on Oct. 23 released a new record of decision (ROD) adopting an oil and gas leasing program that officially opens roughly 1,563,500 acres in the Coastal Plain of Alaska for hydraulic fracturing in keeping with the executive order titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential” issued by President Donald J. Trump on the first day of his second term. Plans for oil and gas extraction in that region of Alaska have been the subject of much dispute and litigation across multiple presidential administrations.