Mealey's Fracking
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March 29, 2023
Judge Enjoins Federal Agency From Halting Fracking Lease Sales In North Dakota
BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota has approved the state of North Dakota’s request for an order enjoining and restraining the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) implementation of its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing lease sales in the state, but the judge denied the state’s request for an order compelling the DOI to hold the previously canceled quarterly lease sales for “available” lands.
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March 28, 2023
Fracking Operator To Pay $6.2M To Remedy Noncompliance At Its Wells In New Mexico
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on March 27 announced that it has reached an agreement with a hydraulic fracturing operator under which it will pay a combined $6.2 million in penalties and environmental improvement costs to ensure that it is in compliance with clean air regulations on all of its 239 well pads in New Mexico.
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March 28, 2023
Oil Company: Municipality Violated Civil Rights, Due Process With Zoning Changes
LOS ANGELES — An oil and gas exploration company sued a California municipality in California federal court, contending that it is liable for violating the company’s civil rights and arguing that it has violated the takings clause of the U.S. Constitution by changing zoning laws that make drilling difficult on lands for which the company already has the right to drill.
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March 22, 2023
Following Adverse Inter Partes Review, U.S. Well Gives Notice Of Appeal
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a March 21 filing with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the owner of a patented method and system for fully electronic monitoring and control of hydraulic fracturing said it will appeal a January determination of obviousness.
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March 21, 2023
Native American Group Seeks Intervention In Case Opposing Willow Project Approval
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Native American organization on March 20 moved to intervene in a lawsuit brought by other Native Americans who oppose the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) decision to allow a hydraulic fracturing development project in the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope known as the Willow Project. The organization seeking to intervene says it has the right to do so because it represents the community of Nuiqsut, Alaska, the village closest to the project.
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March 13, 2023
Landowners In Fracking Royalty Dispute Seek 3rd Circuit Review Of Dismissal
SCRANTON, Pa. — Pennsylvania landowners who had their royalty dispute dismissed when a federal judge found that they failed to produce evidence that created a genuine dispute of material fact regarding the negotiation of certain fees with a hydraulic fracturing operator have filed a notice of appeal to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 13, 2023
Split Texas High Court Favors Landowners In Fracking Royalty Contract Dispute
AUSTIN, Texas — A divided Texas Supreme Court on March 10 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of landowners in a hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute, holding that the “broad lease language” of the agreement between the parties “unambiguously contemplates” a royalty base that may exceed gross proceeds.
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March 13, 2023
Groups Say Federal Fracking Lease Approval Was ‘Arbitrary And Capricious’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmental groups filed a brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that they are entitled to summary judgment in their dispute with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) over the sale of oil and gas lease parcels for hydraulic fracturing because the DOI’s analysis that found that there was no significant impact from fracking was “arbitrary and capricious.”
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March 10, 2023
Panel: Fracking Operator Validly Pooled Portions Of Lease, So No Violation
CINCINNATI — A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 9 issued a mandate enforcing its unpublished opinion that a hydraulic fracturing operator validly pooled portions of the leasehold into a drilling unit and conducted operations that extended the lease in question such that it did not violate the lease by continuing operations, contrary to the claims of the leaseholders.
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March 09, 2023
Native American Tribes Say Case Challenging National Monuments Order Fails
SALT LAKE CITY — A group of Native American tribes moved to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the state of Utah and two municipalities over the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, contending that President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s proclamation reestablishing them is consistent with the Antiquities Act and, therefore, the lawsuit challenging the president’s decision fails.
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March 09, 2023
Judge Allows Royalty Claims In Fracking Case But Dismisses 2 Defendants
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia partially dismissed a hydraulic fracturing contract dispute as it relates to two fracking operators but denied dismissal with respect to claims against the remaining defendant for improper deductions of royalties.
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March 09, 2023
Judge Denies Reconsideration Of Order Allowing Cross-Unit Drilling In Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied a motion by leaseholders seeking reconsideration of an order that granted summary judgment in a dispute over cross-unit drilling of hydraulic fracturing wells, ruling that he did not “clearly err” in his interpretation of the lease in question.
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March 09, 2023
Fracking Company Says Colorado Agency’s Remediation Order Deprives It Of Revenue
DENVER — A drilling and well service company has sued the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) in state court challenging the legality of the COGCC’s order of noncompliance with regard to remediating hazards, which the company says effectively requires it to shut down wells and deprives it of operating revenue by suspending its authority to transport and sell oil and gas.
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March 09, 2023
Group: Agency’s Arguments Opposing Offshore Fracking Case ‘Have No Legal Basis’
LOS ANGELES — An environmental advocacy group filed a brief in California federal court arguing that its lawsuit pertaining to offshore oil and gas activities along the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is valid and contending that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) arguments that the case should be dismissed “have no legal basis and conflict with considerable precedent.”
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March 08, 2023
DOI: Groups Fail To Show Unlawful Delay In Plan To Develop Offshore Drilling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that oil and gas industry trade groups have not established standing and have not shown that there has been an unlawful delay in the DOI’s program for oil and gas leasing in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
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March 08, 2023
Class Says Fracking Company Breached Its Contract By Failing To Pay Royalties
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A putative class of hydraulic fracturing royalty owners has sued an oil and gas company in Arkansas federal court contending that it has breached its obligations by failing to pay royalties based upon the gross proceeds actually received on the sale of natural gas to third-party purchasers at the pipeline interconnects, without deductions.
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March 08, 2023
Amici: High Court Review Of Coastal Zone Fracking Case Needed For Economic Reasons
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Texas and other states have filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should grant review of a hydraulic fracturing trade group’s petition regarding the interpretation of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) because the lower court ruling jeopardizes the “economic driver” of oil and gas production in their respective states and conflicts with the decisions of other circuit courts.
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March 08, 2023
Native American Groups Oppose Fracking Advocates In Case About Drilling Moratorium
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Native American tribal government and other tribal parties filed a brief in Alaska federal court contending that it should deny a motion for summary judgment sought by hydraulic fracturing advocates who say the Biden administration unlawfully imposed a moratorium on fracking. The tribal government says the fracking proponents’ arguments are “based on fundamental misapprehensions” regarding both executive actions and the analysis conducted by federal agencies.
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February 27, 2023
Judge Denies 2nd Motion To Nix Plaintiff Attorney In Abandoned Wells Case
WHEELING, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia denied a hydraulic fracturing company’s second attempt to disqualify the counsel for landowners in a dispute over abandoned wells, ruling that there is no ethical violation on the part of the fracking operator’s former employee Bryan “Wayne” Bowman II or the plaintiffs’ counsel because during his employment he did not serve in any official capacity in its in-house legal department.
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February 27, 2023
Canada Not Liable For Revocation Of River Fracking Permit, Tribunal Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has published a split tribunal’s award rejecting a U.S. hydraulic fracturing company’s claim for more than $103.6 million against the government of Canada for allegedly breaching the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by revoking its permit to explore and frack oil deposits under the St. Lawrence River.
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February 23, 2023
Fracking Lease Case Removed To Federal Court As Fracking Company Seeks Payment
SHREVEPORT, La. — An oil and gas company defendant on Feb. 22 removed to Louisiana federal court a lawsuit brought by a hydraulic fracturing company that seeks payment for portions of minerals extracted from certain wells, which the fracking company maintains it is owed pursuant to leases negotiated between the parties.
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February 22, 2023
North Dakota Seeks Injunction To Fix ‘Unlawful’ Fracking Lease Sale Cancellation
BISMARCK, N.D. — The state of North Dakota filed a reply brief in North Dakota federal court seeking an order that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) hold quarterly lease sales for hydraulic fracturing on federal land when there is land that is eligible and available under the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA).
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February 10, 2023
Groups Seek Intervention In Federal Fracking Lease Case, Dispute Wyoming’s Claims
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Environmental conservation groups moved in Wyoming federal court to intervene in a hydraulic fracturing lease dispute, arguing that the state of Wyoming’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) claiming that its decision to pause federal lease sales is unlawful “flies in the face of the plain language” of the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA) and would impair the groups’ interests.
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February 10, 2023
Appeals Panel: Fracking Operators Liable, But $40.12M Award To Be Recalculated
ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — A divided Ohio appellate panel has affirmed a summary judgment ruling for mineral rights holders on their claims of bad faith trespass and conversion against a hydraulic fracturing operator, but it remanded the case to the trial court for a recalculation of a $40,129,357.62 award for damages related to the ownership of the surface rights in question.
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February 10, 2023
Biden Administration: Fracking Lease Case Fails To Meet Burden Requiring Action
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Biden administration filed a brief in Alaska federal court contending that it should dismiss a case filed by groups that advocate for hydraulic fracturing activity in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) because the groups “do not approach the steep burden required to compel agency action,” nor do they demonstrate that the administration’s moratorium on federal lease sales in that region violated federal law.