Lawsuit

The Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) is suing would-be merger partner Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) and ETE CEO Kelcy Warren over a recent private offering of ETE units and alleged interference with the merger plan by Warren.

Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. said they will fight Justice Department efforts to block their pending $34.6 billion merger, claiming government officials reached the wrong conclusion in assessing the transaction and charged the action is counterproductive in light of the challenges now being experienced by the global energy industry.

A trade group representing Pennsylvania’s legacy oil and natural gas producers has filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to stop a package of new regulations that it claims would put many of its members out of business.

Louisiana’s attorney general (AG) is intervening in 39 lawsuits out of three parishes that allege hundreds of energy companies have damaged the state’s coastline over the years.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Thursday directed his state’s attorney general to intervene in support of the federal agencies targeted by a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Idaho by four environmental groups that don’t like the greater sage grouse state-federal protection strategy hammered out last year (see Daily GPI,Sept. 22, 2015).

The West Virginia House of Delegates has officially abandoned legislation that would have significantly cut the state’s 5% oil, natural gas and coal severance tax rate. House leaders said that they would instead study the cuts over the next year. The West Virginia Senate passed SB 705 in early March. It would have lowered the severance tax rate to 4% by July 2017 and to 3% in July 2018. The state tax department estimated that the cuts would have cost the state up to $129 million in 2018. Sources had told NGI’s Shale Daily prior to the House’s announcement that the bill stood only a small chance of being passed (see Shale Daily,March 8). Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin also indicated that he would have vetoed the bill.

The West Virginia Senate has passed two bills to benefit the oil and gas industry. SB 508, which would clarify the language that defines a private nuisance, passed 20-12 and has been sent to the state House judiciary committee (see Shale Daily,Feb. 18). It would make it more difficult for residents to file lawsuits against producers and other businesses by requiring them to prove physical property damage or a bodily injury claim. SB 565, which would allow drillers to construct access roads and well pads before submitting plans and receiving a permit, passed the chamber 31-1 and has been sent to the House energy committee. Operators could start work without submitting engineering plans or receiving a permit from the state, but they would still be required to do so before drilling any wells. The legislature’s 60-day 2016 legislative session adjourns March 12.

Cameron Parish, LA, has filed 11 lawsuits against about 200 oil/natural gas companies alleging liability for damage to Louisiana coastal wetlands. Similar lawsuits by Jefferson Parish are pending; however, Plaquemines Parish has dropped its lawsuits (see Daily GPI,Nov. 13, 2015). “This has become a pattern in our state,” said Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association. “File large-scale egregious lawsuits that try to strain as many dollars as possible off the backs of the hardworking men and women of the oil and gas industry.”

Regional air quality regulators on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Los Angeles against Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), alleging negligence by the nation’s largest gas-only utility in the handling of a three-month-old leaking natural gas storage well.