If you dispose of produced water you are no-doubt aware of the intensive earthquakes being observed across the Midland and Delaware Basins. In West Texas Earthquake Observations, Implications for the Oil and Gas Industry,...more
S.F.’s Embarcadero could be devastated by earthquakes and rising seas, study warns - SFGate – September 19 - The Embarcadero in San Francisco faces severe threats from both earthquakes that could undermine the city’s...more
Sierra Club v. Chesapeake Operating LLC et al is news more shocking than “Man Bites Dog”! A federal court has acknowledged that others are better equipped to address certain issues than the judiciary!...more
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma has dismissed the Sierra Club’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) citizen suit, filed against several oil and gas producers seeking declaratory and...more
In last week’s post, we discussed the rapid development of the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) industry in the United States, and some of the innate risks presented by those operations. In particular, the post focused on a...more
The Sierra Club has filed suit against three oil and gas companies operating in Oklahoma, alleging that the companies’ wastewater injection practices were behind the recent uptick in earthquake activity in the state. The...more
What should we make of the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s order sending a suit alleging injuries from an earthquake back to the trial court for further action? Did the court unleash the lions, tigers and bears of the litigation...more
Update: On September 10, the Texas Railroad Commission concluded that these small earthquakes that occurred near Azle, Texas likely were not caused by drilling operations conducted by EnerVest Operating LLC. The Texas...more
On September 10, the Texas Railroad Commission absolved a second oil and gas company of causing a series of earthquakes in northern Texas finding that the seismic activity was due to “natural tectonic processes.” The...more
The controversy around whether wastewater injection wells cause earthquakes was finally put to legal scrutiny in a recent proceeding before administrative hearing examiners (Examiners) with the Texas Railroad Commission,...more
Potentially opening the door for litigation that seeks to tie deep-well injection of hydraulic fracturing flowback and other wastewater to damage caused by earthquakes, the Oklahoma Supreme Court unanimously held that state...more
In This Presentation: • Water Consumption & Reuse Projections • Regulatory Overview – Federal: UIC exempton/EPA Study – State: RRC MOU/Rule Proposals • Property, Ownership, and Common Law Issues • Earthquake...more