A new lawsuit filed in Crane County, Texas claims that operators have over injected produced water causing contamination on a West Texas ranch. See Billy Wayne Meister Jr. v. Blackbeard Operating, LLC et al., Cause No. 25-052-DCCV-00098, in the 109th Judicial District of Crane County, Texas. According to the petition, injection wells on and around the property have injected millions of barrels of salt water into subsurface formations, creating an over-pressurized zone of produced water in, under, and adjacent to the plaintiff’s property. The plaintiff contends that operators have over pressurized the subsurface by injecting produced water which in turn has allegedly compromised wellbores, resulting in groundwater impacts and blowouts. The petition alleges that subsurface pressure has caused fissures to appear on plaintiff’s property allowing saltwater to flow to the surface and flood a road. The petition further contends that defendant-operators have improperly maintained and plugged wells allowing wellbores to “act as conduits for the flow of saltwater and other contaminants into the groundwater, and on to the surface of [plaintiff’s property].”
The petition names eight defendants who are comprised of (1) current operators of injection and production wells located on the property (2) a company sued for the historical plugging activities of its predecessor entities, and (3) an injection well operator of several offsite wells. Specifically, the petition claims that one defendant “operates a cluster of disposal wells to the northwest of [the property]” and “has injected millions of barrels of produced saltwater into [its] wells at an increasing rate and volume.” Another defendant is sued for a predecessor-company’s alleged failure to plug a well in 1978, nearly half a century ago.
In support of its theory, the plaintiff relies in part on a 2024 study by Southern Methodist University which, according to the petition, links injection activity at disposal wells in the Crane County area to subsurface pressure, surface uplift, and subsequent well failures. See Karanam, V., Lu, Z., & Kim, J.-W. (2024) Investigation of Oil Well Blowouts Triggered by Wastewater Injection in the Permian Basin, USA. Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2024GL109435.
Seeking a mandatory injunction, the plaintiff asks the Court to force defendants to in effect curtail injection, re-enter and re-plug wells, and provide an alternate water source for the property. The petition also seeks to recover damages that include remediation costs, loss of use, diminution of property value, and exemplary damages. Ultimately, the case attempts to frame the issue as a systemic failure of well integrity and injection management across decades of oil and gas operations. It reflects a broader trend of landowner litigation in Texas focusing on legacy wells, produced water disposal practices, and successor liability seeking to impose remedies that could require substantial commitments from defendants. Our firm is closely monitoring this case and related litigation trends.
If you have questions about this case or how these issues may affect your operations, contact Liskow attorneys John Troutman, Caleb Madere, and Jamie Rhymes.