Mealey's Fracking
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July 13, 2022
SEC Says Principals, Companies Fraudulently Sold Securities For Fracking Interests
DALLAS — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 30 sued a man and energy companies he had formed contending that they are liable for bilking investors of approximately $2,182,687 through fraud and the unregistered offer and sale of securities for working interests in oil and gas wells in Oklahoma and purported interests in hydraulic fracturing in the Utica shale of Ohio.
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July 13, 2022
Fracking Company: Rehearing En Banc Needed In COVID-19, WARN Act Employment Case
NEW ORLEANS — A hydraulic fracturing services company on June 29 filed a petition in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking rehearing en banc of a ruling that reversed a lower court and held that the company violated federal law when it terminated the employment of three workers during the COVID-19 pandemic without providing advanced notice.
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July 13, 2022
Groups: Agencies Violated Law With Federal Fracking Lease Approvals In 8 States
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmental advocacy groups on June 28 sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and federal officials in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that they violated federal laws when they approved the sale of 173 oil and gas lease parcels for hydraulic fracturing on 144,000 acres of public lands across eight western states.
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July 13, 2022
Chevron, Energy Company Tell California High Court Fracking Ban Violates State Law
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Chevron USA Inc. and another energy company on June 29 filed briefs in the California Supreme Court contending that a local ordinance that bans hydraulic fracturing is preempted because it conflicts with state law by overriding the state’s policy choices that encourage an increase in oil production.
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July 12, 2022
Class: Companies Liable For Abandoned Fracking Wells, Fraudulent Transfers
WHEELING, W.Va. — A trio of landowners, as members of proposed class, on July 8 sued a group of energy companies and hydraulic fracturing operators in West Virginia federal court contending that their properties are burdened with abandoned wells that the defendants have a duty to plug to reduce methane emissions and restore damaged properties under state law. They also claim that the defendants made fraudulent transfers of assets as part of a “scheme” to shed liabilities.
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July 06, 2022
Investors Appeal Dismissal Of Securities Fraud Claims To 10th Circuit
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Investors in a securities fraud lawsuit against the member of an oil, gas and mineral exploration joint venture filed a notice of appeal to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 15, seeking to challenge a federal judge in Wyoming’s dismissal of their federal securities law claim as time-barred under the two-year statute of limitations.
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June 24, 2022
Fracking Company’s Amicus Brief Focuses On Federal Lease Sale’s Consequences
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hydraulic fracturing operator on June 13 filed an amicus curiae brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that the appropriate analysis of the federal fracking lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which is being contested by environmental groups, must focus “solely on the consequences of the Lease Sale itself,” leaving the consideration of the environmental effects of fracking activity for a later stage in the proceedings.
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June 23, 2022
Landowner: Fracking Company’s ‘Scheme’ Violated Law, Defrauded Royalties
OKLAHOMA CITY — A landowner on June 22 sued a hydraulic fracturing company in Oklahoma federal court contending that it “orchestrated a scheme” to defraud him and convert his property and the hydrocarbons it contains for the company’s own financial gain by drilling a prohibited well on his land in violation of an existing lease.
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June 20, 2022
Groups Say Fracking Permit Approvals Violate Federal Laws
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two environmental advocacy groups on June 16 filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in District of Columbia federal court challenging its approval of 3,535 applications for permit to drill (APDs) and conduct hydraulic fracturing operations in shale basins in New Mexico and Wyoming, contending that the agency has violated several federal laws.
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June 13, 2022
Colorado Governor Signs Law Requiring Disclosure Of Chemicals Used In Fracking
DENVER — On June 9, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into a law a measure that establishes a regulatory scheme that requires disclosure of chemicals used hydraulic fracturing operations.
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June 13, 2022
Investor: Pipeline Company Artificially Inflated Stock Price, Violated Law
NEW YORK — A shareholder in a company that operates pipelines to carry hydraulically fractured oil and gas on June 3 filed a class action against the company in New York federal court contending that it violated federal securities laws when it concealed and misrepresented numerous facts about its activities that caused the company’s stock price to trade at artificially inflated prices.
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June 10, 2022
Company Seeks $695,865 Final Judgment In Fracking Sand Shipping Dispute
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A railway company on June 8 filed a motion in Ohio federal court seeking a final judgment of $695,865.92 in a dispute over shipments of sand used in hydraulic fracturing operations, arguing that the court has already determined that an oilfield services company is liable for unpaid shipping charges and saying there is “no just reason to delay” the judgment because third-party claims have been resolved.
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June 09, 2022
Oil Company Tells ICSID It Lost More Than $2.1B To Slovak Republic Expropriation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) recently released a tribunal’s April 22 order on transparency and the underlying 2021 request for arbitration in a dispute commenced by a U.S. oil company that claims that the Slovak Republic caused it to lose more than $2.1 billion in potential profits by expropriating its oil drilling investment.
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June 09, 2022
Panel Sanctions Actions ‘Designed In Bad Faith To Harass’ Fracking Company
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A panel of the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) on June 7 granted an intervenor hydraulic fracturing company’s motion for sanctions in the form of legal fees against the attorney representing landowners in a water pollution case, finding that a “baseless motion to stay proceedings” was the latest move “in a series of actions unquestionably designed in bad faith to harass” the fracking company.
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June 09, 2022
Fracking Operators Seek To Compel Leaseholders To Produce Documents
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hydraulic fracturing companies on June 1 moved in Ohio federal court seeking to compel leaseholders with royalty rights to produce certain documents that pertain to the leases among the parties in a dispute over whether the fracking operators trespassed on the leaseholders’ property.
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June 09, 2022
Oil Company Appeals Ruling Denying Its Mineral Rights To 8th Circuit
ST. LOUIS — An oil and gas company on May 19 filed a notice of appeal in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a district court’s ruling that granted summary judgment to an energy resources company regarding a dispute over deed to a parcel of land and the conveyance of mineral rights. The company appealing did not elaborate on the grounds for the appeal.
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June 09, 2022
Well Company Seeks Forgiveness For Failure To File Motion In Proper Jurisdiction
MIDLAND, Texas — A hydraulic fracturing well services company on May 27 filed a brief in Texas federal court asking the court to accept the company’s apology and “forgive Defendants’ counsel’s error” with regard to its failure to comply with district court rules when it moved to compel compliance with subpoena to a nonparty.
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June 08, 2022
Louisiana, Fracking Group: Cancellation Of Federal Lease Sale Should Be Reversed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On June 6, Louisiana and a hydraulic fracturing trade group filed separate appellant briefs in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that it should reverse a district court ruling that vacated a federal fracking lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico because the decision runs counter to precedent as to the type of environmental assessments that are required at the lease-sale stage under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
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June 07, 2022
Mineral Rights Company: Fracking Operator ‘Invaded’ Property, Took Gas Unlawfully
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A company that purchases mineral rights to land where hydraulic fracturing operations can be conducted sued a drilling company in Ohio federal court on June 6, contending that it trespassed on property the company owns and unlawfully took gas from the Utica Shale formation.
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June 07, 2022
9th Circuit: Agencies Failed In Their Assessments Of Offshore Fracking’s Impact
SAN FRANCISCO — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 3 reversed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of federal agencies on environmental groups’ opposition to hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the agencies failed to take the “hard look” required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when they approved drilling in the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of California.
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June 03, 2022
Judge OKs Agreement; Agency Will Conduct More Analysis On Federal Fracking Leases
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On June 1, overriding the objections of hydraulic fracturing trade groups and the states of Utah and Wyoming, a federal judge in the District of Columbia approved a stipulated settlement between environmental advocates and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), which calls for it to conduct additional analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), related to fracking leases on public lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
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June 02, 2022
Texas Supreme Court Will Hear Fracking Dispute Over Force Majeure Clause In Lease
AUSTIN, Texas — On May 27, the Texas Supreme Court granted review of a hydraulic fracturing dispute in which a split state appellate panel held that a fracking company’s leases on specific land automatically terminated in 2017, a case that hinges on the application of the language in the lease pertaining to force majeure.
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June 01, 2022
Briefly: Pipeline Company Says 4th Circuit Panel Judges Ought To Be Reassigned
RICHMOND, Va. — A pipeline company on May 27 filed a reply brief in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asking it to assign different judges to the panel that will hear a dispute over the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) because the Fourth Circuit has “consistently assigned the same three judges to numerous, diverse” pipeline cases, contravening its own objective of avoiding “both the appearance and the fact of presentation of particular types of cases to particular judges.”
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June 01, 2022
Judge Allows Fracking Company To Intervene In Dispute Over Mineral Rights, Permit
BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge in Idaho on May 5 granted an oil and gas company permission to intervene in a mineral rights dispute involving multiple landowners and the state oil and gas commission, ruling that the company has “distinctly different” interests from the other defendants.
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June 01, 2022
Judge Refuses To Dismiss Claim Against Company That Is Fracking Without Permission
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on May 18 ruled that a landowner couple had sufficiently pleaded their cause of action and denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit they filed against a hydraulic fracturing operator they claim is extracting gas from underneath their property without permission.