Halliburton failed to convince a U.S. federal jury on Thursday that a unit of rival oilfield services company ProFrac infringed its electric-fracking patents. The jury in Waco, Texas, agreed with ProFrac’s U.S. Well Services that the company’s “Clean Fleet” technology did not work in the same way as Halliburton’s patented technology for electric fracking, or “e-frac,” which has a smaller carbon footprint than traditional fracking.
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The jury also determined that two of the three Halliburton patents at issue were invalid. Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the verdict. E-frac uses electricity from natural gas or power grids to drive pumps instead of diesel fuel. Oil and gas companies have been adopting the technology in efforts to reduce the carbon emissions created by fracking.
Halliburton countersued U.S. Well Services in response to a patent lawsuit that it brought in 2021 over Halliburton’s e-frac fleet. U.S. Well Services’ patents from that case have since been declared invalid by the Waco court and a U.S. Patent Office tribunal. Halliburton has also filed two other e-frac patent lawsuits against U.S. Well Services in Waco that are scheduled for a trial next year. ProFrac, a Willow Park, Texas-based oilfield services company backed by billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks, bought Houston-based U.S. Well Services last year.
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