Lawsuit

A Pennsylvania township has filed lawsuit against its county board of elections, arguing that a referendum put forth by an environmental group that would ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the township violates several state laws and could expose the municipality to legal action by the industry and others.

A lawsuit filed by Amaranth Advisors LLC claiming JPMorgan Chase & Co. executives helped to cause the natural gas hedge fund to collapse may not proceed, New York Supreme Court Judge O. Peter Sherwood has ruled. The hedge fund imploded in a $6.4 billion debacle in 2006 on bad bets on natural gas futures and derivatives deals. Amaranth sued the bank a year later for its alleged role in the fund’s demise, claiming that JPMorgan officials interfered in a deal with Citadel by disparaging Amaranth’s financial condition (see NGI, Nov. 19, 2007). In a 32-page ruling Sherwood said Citadel had “conducted its own research in connection with the proposed transaction with the fund and evidence of the tenuousness of the fund’s financial condition was readily available” (Amaranth LLC v. JPMorgan Chase & Co., No. 603756/2007, New York Supreme Court, New York County).

Range Production Co.’s lawsuit to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide documents related to its investigation of Range’s alleged contamination of water wells in the Barnett Shale region in North Texas was dismissed without prejudice in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Judge Lee Yeakel said Range’s pursuit of the documents in conjunction with a case before the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) was rendered moot when the RRC found Range to be not responsible for methane in the water wells (see Shale Daily, March 23). Range and EPA are still battling in federal court over the agency’s enforcement action against Range.

Range Production Co.’s lawsuit to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide documents related to its investigation of Range’s alleged contamination of water wells in the Barnett Shale region in North Texas was dismissed without prejudice in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Judge Le Yeakel said Range’s pursuit of the documents in conjunction with a case before the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) was rendered moot when the RRC found Range to be not responsible for methane in the water wells (see Daily GPI, March 23). Range and EPA are still battling in federal court over the agency’s enforcement action against Range.

BP plc has filed a lawsuit against Halliburton Co., claiming that the oilfield service operator’s “misconduct” contributed to the April 2010 blowout of the Macondo well and explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. BP also has filed claims against Deepwater Horizon owner and operator Transocean Ltd., as well as Cameron International, which manufactured the well’s blowout preventer. BP said the presidential commission investigating the disaster had concluded that the cement slurry designed, mixed and pumped by Halliburton failed, and that results of the failed tests were not provided, which caused technicians to miss “critical signals that hydrocarbons were flowing into the wellbore.” A BP spokesman said the company was not seeking a specific sum from Halliburton but would ask for damages up to the total cost of the spill. BP is seeking at least $40 billion in damages from Transocean and seeks to force Cameron to contribute “all or part of the damages” that may be levied against BP by the U.S. government.

A federal judge in Erie, PA, has approved a class action lawsuit settlement that could total more than $22 million in a case filed by thousands of landowners in the Marcellus Shale play against Range Resources Appalachia LLC over royalty calculations.

A federal judge in Erie, PA, has approved a class action lawsuit settlement that could total more than $22 million in a case filed by thousands of landowners in the Marcellus Shale play against Range Resources Appalachia LLC over royalty calculations.

With a U.S. District Court in San Diego dismissing a lawsuit last month, Sempra Energy’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the Pacific Coast of North Baja California in Mexico is free of any legal challenges for the time being as a similar challenge to Sempra LNG is dormant in a Mexican court, pending a new hearing date.

Outgoing New York Gov. David Paterson took the high road on Saturday, vetoing a bill that would have codified into law a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state through May 15, and at the same time extending until July 1 a deadline for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to prepare a supplemental generic environmental impact statement (SGEIS).