Plainsmen Energy Inc v. Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc: Suit alleges frac’ing by Ovintiv/Encana decreased oil production and flooding of frac fluids damaged property.

Where did Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc come from?

Cory v. Newfield Expl. Mid-Con, Inc. Opinion, April 12,2020

… Newfield Exploration Company merged with a wholly owned subsidiary of Encana Corporation, which is based in Canada. … After removal, Encana Corporation was reorganized. … The result was that Newfield Exploration Mid-Continent Inc. became known as Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc. and Newfield Exploration Company became known as Ovintiv Exploration Inc. Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc. is wholly owned by Ovintiv Exploration Inc., which in turn is wholly owned by Ovintiv USA Inc., which in turn is wholly owned by Ovintiv Inc. … The current status is: (1) the presumed real party in interest, Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc., is the successor of named Defendant Newfield Exploration Mid-Continent Inc. and, like its predecessor, is incorporated in Delaware and has its principal place of business in Texas…; and (2) Defendant’s ultimate parent, Ovintiv Inc., was incorporated in Delaware and now has its principal place of business in Colorado….

What a tangled mess. Looks like changing names has not improved Encana’s frac practices or financial ones.

Removed To Federal Court by Law.com, March 3, 2021

Lawyers at McAfee & Taft on Tuesday removed a lawsuit against Ovintiv Mid-Continent to Oklahoma Western District Court.

The suit alleges that fracking by defendant has caused a decrease in oil production and property damage caused by flooding from fracking fluids.

The complaint was filed by Puls Haney Lyster on behalf of Plainsmen Energy. The case is 5:21-cv-00171, Plainsmen Energy Inc. v. Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc.

Plainsmen Energy Inc v. Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc

Plaintiff:Plainsmen Energy Inc
Defendant:Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc
Case Number:5:2021cv00171
Filed:March 2, 2021
Court:US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
Presiding Judge:Charles Goodwin
Nature of Suit:Torts to Land
Cause of Action:28:1332

Ovintiv Inc. [Previously Encana] Ultimate Parent of Ovintiv Mid-Continent Inc

Refer also to:

2018: ‘Frac hits’ growing issue as infill drilling, frac stages rise: “Economic results could be catastrophic”

2017: Now it’s oilmen who say fracking could harm groundwater

2017: Heaven Help Our Drinking Water: How many frac hit damages when Encana fracs multi-stacked, 60 wells per section?

2017: Oklahoma Kingfisher County: At Least 450 Vertical Oil Wells Damaged By Horizontal Fracking. “Hundreds if not thousands of wells are being destroyed by horizontal frac jobs.” How many oil & gas & drinking water wells damaged by fracking (vertical and horizontal) in Alberta?

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2017: Oklahoma: ‘Frack hits’ on the rise; Frackers Collide With Traditional Oil & Gas Drillers; Hundreds of damaging cases of “involuntary stimulation”

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2017: “Frack Well Bashing” is going to get expensive! Frack Hit Demolition Derby Down Below: Drill, inject, bump ‘n crack, hit ‘n smash, bash ‘n dash, while Encana lies ‘n says, “We don’t frac. We stimulate.” 2 wells, 1 patch of dirt. Who gets the oil? The biggest bully. “Fracks hitting wells several miles away.”

… The petroleum engineer is dealing with a well that has been hit three times. The first was a “bump,” Altman said. The second was a “hit.” The third was a “smash,” collapsing the well’s casing and ruining it.

That well had been producing about 40 barrels of oil a month. With natural gas production thrown in, that added up to $10,000 a month — a rounding error for Newfield, but a tidy sum for Altman and his business partners. And that’s only one of more than two dozen of their wells that have been damaged since 2014.

“I’ve never had a horizontal well nearby that didn’t hit me,” Altman said. …

A Newfield engineer testified in September that frack fluid has been found a mile from where it started. Small drillers say they’ve heard of fracks hitting wells several miles away.

And the larger companies don’t always accept the 600-foot setback because it means less oil. In the September OCC hearing, Newfield argued that unless the setback was waived for several wells, it would wind up leaving nearly $28 million worth of oil and gas in the ground. The judge rejected the waiver request.

Some frack hits blast through the top of the vertical well itself and cause a spill at the surface. Ironically, the owners of the vertical well are usually held responsible for the spill cleanup, since it happened at their well.

2015: Home Wrecker? Three Weeks After Encana Oil Well Explosion in Karnes County Texas, Families Still Can’t Go Home

A dead zone is visible on June 1, 2015 around an EnCana frackng well blowout that occurred May 19, 2015 in a rural area near Karnes City, Texas.

2015 Greenpeace, photo Aaron Sprecher, Encana fracking blowout Karnes Co Texas.1884

“They’re not allowing us to go back to our property,” he added. “They have guards out front, and if we try to go back, they call the police.”

Cordova said he wants to go back to retrieve important documents like birth certificates. Encana has offered to do it for him [That’s downright creepy], but Cordova said he’s uncomfortable with the idea of strangers going through his personal belongings. …

2015 Greenpeace, photo Aaron Sprecher, Encana fracking blowout Karnes Co Texas.1523

[How do you like your steak?  Marinated in Encana’s Secret Frac Sauce or au naturel?]

“I felt like crying seeing the mess spewed by the well,” he wrote in an email. “My [cattle’s] grass was yellow, leaves off my trees were falling and on the ground.”

2015 Greenpeace, photo Aaron Sprecher, Encana fracking blowout Karnes Co Texas.2084
2015 Greenpeace, photo Aaron Sprecher, Encana fracking blowout Karnes Co Texas.2090
2015 Greenpeace, photo Aaron Sprecher, Encana fracking blowout Karnes Co Texas.2569

“We know nothing,” Cordova said. “We’re just kind of left in the dark, playing the waiting game.” 

2015: AER’s EMERGENCY COMMAND CENTRE SET UP 2.5 HRS AWAY! DON’T AER COMMAND STAFF WANT TO DAMAGE THEIR BRAINS? Encana’s Fox Creek blow out spewing 20,000,000,000 litres/day sour gas & condensate: Where’s the regulator? Ex-Encana VP Gerard Protti = AER Chair; Ex-Encana Manager Mark Taylor = AER VP Industry Operations

2015: Encana well blowout after fracking leaves oily mess of spewing natural gas, propane, butane, benzene and toluene, forces 2 dozen families from their homes in Karnes County, Evacuees anxious to see the damage to their homes

2015 05 21 Encana well blow out snap from clip by KSAT

2014: Parko sues Encana, claims Encana’s fracing is altering geology causing frac fluids to invade, ruin wells; Parko “seeks damages for negligence, trespass, bad-faith trespass”

2014: New Mexico wells have had over 100 frack hits, many caused by Encana

Arguably, no company has been affected as much as Dugan Production, which reported 36 frack hits to the OCD. The company has conventional oil wells in the Gallup sandstone formation, many of which have been in operation for decades. They have mostly been affected by Encana…. 

The fracking fluid that Encana used is composed of nitrogen, water, sand and chemicals. The nitrogen keeps the solution foamy, like shaving cream, and reduces the amount of water used in the frack….

… At times, when Encana fracked its wells, the nitrogen would show up half a mile away inside Dugan’s vertical wells.

The process of fracking causes an immense pressure buildup underground, which then looks for an exit.

… Most of the wells that are frack hit get contaminated with fracking fluids in their well bore, which suggests material is moving between the two parcels of land.

2014: B.C. horse breeder recounts fracking sour gas leak scare caused by Encana

2013: When Frackers Frack Other Frackers They Break The First Fracking Commandment: Thou Shall Not Frack Another Fracker

It can get pretty testy. Encana fracked somebody else’s well – in yet another case of “involuntary stimulation”

2013: Encana’s fracking fluid blows out nearby Parko Oil well in New Mexico, Encana promises to but does not pay the cleanup cost

2013 10 18 Encana frac blows out Parko vertical oil well Encana will not pay clean up

2012 11 28: Power of Attorney Calgary managing partner for Osler Hoskin Harcourt, Maureen Killoran, lawyer representing Encana in the Ernst vs Encana lawsuit:

And, to be perfectly frank, when you do energy law, as I do, or corporate litigation, you’re not dealing with life and death situations and people whose lives have been turned upside down, plaintiffs who are weeping. It’s just about money.

2010: EnCana Corporation facing criminal charges then $250000 in community safety projects following Encana deadly sour gas leak. Where did the criminal charges go?

2010 08 11: EnCana caps B.C. gas well blowout

2008: EnCana Bluegrass Blues / BBC World News America Preview by BBCWorldNewsAmerica
David Willis took you to West Colorado where small towns there are experiencing a natural gas boom.

During filming, a group of local residence played a bluegrass song that Encana took them to court to stop singing and it was thrown out of court.

Glenwood quartet sings drilling blues, BBC World News features ‘EnCana Bluegrass Blues’
A video of local musicians – including a workers’ compensation attorney – singing a less-than-flattering song about EnCana may have been viewed by some 350 million people in various parts of the world.

Clips of the song were featured in a 10-minute BBC World News America television segment on natural-gas drilling in Colorado. … The BBC reportedly approached Kaufman after hearing an original recording and requested to film it on location on the banks of Divide Creek in Garfield County. The song was written after one of EnCana’s wells leaked into West Divide Creek in 2004. The seep was found to contain the carcinogenic chemical benzene, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission fined EnCana a record $371,000.

2005: EnCana’s denial doesn’t deter woman

When Laura Amos looks out her dining room window, she doesn’t see the west Colorado landscape. She sees the huge water tank the EnCana gas company fills every few weeks.

Just across her fence looms the gas company’s G33 well pad, with four wells that Amos says have contaminated her water. Amos’ water supply is contaminated by natural gas; that much is certain, although the source of that gas has not been officially settled.

But Amos is more concerned with a different kind of contamination. Looking out at the water tank that dominates her view, the Silt resident argues that EnCana’s hydraulic fracturing on its nearby wells has contaminated her water.

EnCana, which has been providing drinking water to the Amos home since January, denies that chemicals from the “frac’ing” have leaked into the Amos water well.

Tuesday, Amos spoke to the Post Independent about her efforts to prove EnCana is the source of the contamination.

Last week, EnCana laid out its case to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in Rifle. EnCana engineer Joel Fox and water-well expert Tony Gorody said hydraulic fracturing fluid could not have entered Laura Amos’ water well.

COGCC staff has recommended fining EnCana for contaminating the Amos well with gas from its wells. It will hold a hearing on the matter in October. However, the COGCC staff has agreed with the gas company that the Amos well shows no signs of fracturing chemicals associated with natural-gas production.

Amos disagrees.

“The dates our water well was impacted exactly bracket the dates of (EnCana’s) hydraulic fracturing,” she said.

Since her well “blew up” on May 1, 2001, Amos has made two allegations that frac’ing caused her well to blow its top, and that 2BE, a chemical used in the process, leaked into her well. Amos has been diagnosed with an adrenal gland tumor and she says it was caused by that contamination.

Amos said she pressured the company to admit it used 2BE in frac’ing, but EnCana repeatedly denied using the chemical. Then, she said, she received a letter from the COGCC in 2004 that confirmed EnCana used the compound during one frac’ing job in June 2001. That, according to Amos, was “38 days after they knew gas was flowing” to her well.

Amos also questions EnCana’s testing of her well water.

“The premise is we can trust the people who are doing the testing. … But the people who are causing the problem tested it,” she said. “This company has a long history of lying and denying.”

She also contends the company did not test her water for 2BE until January, three years after the blowup, long after the chemical would have disappeared from her well water.

“Tony Gorody implied (the well was) tested for 2BE or frac’ing fluid in May and August of 2001 and was not detected,” she said. “The truth is, this past winter they tested for 2BE, three and a half years after the initial impact.”

At the COGCC meeting last week, Gorody said thermogenic, or production-type, gas contaminated the Amos well.

“Hydraulic frac’ing created or opened up a hydrogeological connection (from the EnCana wells) with my water well,” Amos said. “This is a fact. Wells would not be economical without hydraulic frac’ing. They’ve got an obligation to protect hydraulic frac’ing and to keep it available to them.”

On this sunny, blue-sky day, Amos and her daughter Lauren look out over their barbed-wire fence at excavating equipment moving back and forth over the G33 well pad, a stone’s throw away.

“We used to have gorgeous property here. Now it’s an industrial wasteland.”

Divide Creek Seep 2004 that resulted in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission issuing a record fine against EnCana

2004: Alleged Violations of the rules and regulations of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) by EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. Cause No. 1V, Order No. 1V-276 before the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission of the State of Colorado

The COGCC staff hand-delivered a Notice of Alleged Violation (“NOAV”) to EnCana on April 23, 2004. …The NOAV cited Rule 209., failure to prevent the contamination of fresh water by gas, Rule 301., failure to notify the Director when public health or safety is in jeopardy, Rule 317.i., failure to pump cement 200’ above the top of the shallowest producing horizon, Rule 324A., impacts to water quality and Rule 906.b.(3), failure to report a release to the Director.

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