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Mealey's Fracking

  • January 26, 2026

    Judge Says Residents Fail To Present Evidence In Dispute Over Royalty Payments

    TULSA, Okla. — A federal judge in Oklahoma has granted judgment as a matter of law to individuals and companies in the energy industry following a trial on residents’ claims that they were defrauded through an underpayment of royalties on natural gas produced from their wells. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to present evidence that would permit a jury to find in their favor with respect to any of their claims.

  • January 26, 2026

    California Sues Federal Agency Challenging Orders Approving Las Flores Pipelines

    SAN FRANCISCO — The state of California on Jan. 23 filed a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging what it says are three unlawful orders issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) related to a pair of onshore pipelines called the Las Flores Pipelines, which are part of the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) that transports oil from offshore platforms to onshore facilities in Santa Barbara, Calif.

  • January 26, 2026

    After Nearly 6 Years, Groups Amend Arctic Drilling Case Against Federal Agencies

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Environmental advocacy groups have amended a complaint they initially filed in 2020, opposing the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) plan to open the Coastal Plain of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to hydraulic fracturing.  In the second amended and first supplemental complaint, the groups add to the list of federal laws that they say the defendants have violated through actions that are “arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with law.”

  • January 26, 2026

    Panel Reverses, Says All Evidence Was Not Considered In Ruling On Fracking Pooling

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia appellate panel has reversed and remanded a ruling by a state oil and gas commission related to its decision to approve an application for pooling and unitization of a drilling unit for hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the commission did not consider all of the evidence, including the objections of some residents who said that they did not receive a good faith offer for their interests prior to the commission’s approval of the application.

  • January 21, 2026

    Defendant: Fraud Complaint Demonstrates ‘An Unfathomable Level Of Laziness’

    TYLER, Texas — A defendant in a lawsuit brought by a receiver for multiple entities in a fraud lawsuit against individuals and companies related to nonexistent hydraulic fracturing technology on Jan. 20 filed a pro se response to the amended complaint, denying all allegations against him and arguing that “the entire complaint demonstrates an unfathomable level of laziness,” bordering on “gross incompetence.”

  • January 20, 2026

    Alaska, Trump Administration, For Differing Reasons, Say Fracking Case Fails

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska and the Trump administration on Jan. 16 filed separate briefs in support of motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by environmental groups that are challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order that reopened areas of the outer continental shelf (OCS) for hydraulic fracturing. The state argues that the case should be dismissed for lack of standing because the plaintiffs have not alleged imminent and particular harm in the District of Alaska. The Trump administration, which insists it has sovereign immunity, contends that jurisdiction is lacking.

  • January 15, 2026

    Federal Government Says California Law That Restricts Drilling Rights Is ‘Invalid’

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The U.S. government on Jan. 14 sued the state of California in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, arguing that a state law that restricts oil and gas drilling “effectively nullifies vested federal lease rights” and is invalid because it constitutes an obstruction that is “contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

  • 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.