Once upon a time a good way to commit oil patch theft was to back a truck up to the tank battery in the middle of the night, fill ‘er up, and drive off into the darkness. In re: Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC shows...more
In Self v. BPX Operating, a case with significant implications for Louisiana operators and royalty owners, the Supreme Court of Louisiana ruled that the doctrine of negotiorum gestio in La. Civil Code art. 2292 does not allow...more
How will you and I become extinct? The UN assures us that the weather will be unpleasant whenever it happens. The IPCC has predicted that global “warming”, “heating”, “baking” “broiling” and other Game of Thrones-worthy...more
The real takeaway from Pruett v. River Land Holdings LLC is the reminder that the Texas Railroad Commission cannot adjudicate questions of title. ...more
It’s not exactly Deuteronomy 23:19, but the Supreme Court of Texas has an opinion about interest. They don’t like it if it’s compounded. Samson Exploration LLC v. Bordages addressed interest to be charged on unpaid royalties...more
Montgomery Trustee v. ES3 Minerals and Echo Minerals is another Texas fixed or floating royalty case. Before diving into the details, perhaps it’s best to describe the pattern the courts seem to fall into to resolve these...more
Litigation practice tip before we dive into Right-Way Sand Co. v. South Texas Pipelines LLC (STX). Waiting 27 months after being sued and after the offending activity has occurred before asking for an injunction to “protect...more
Maverick Natural Resources, LLC at al v. Glenn D. Cooper Oil & Gas, Inc. is for control freaks wherever you are … and for those of you who advise the aforesaid control freaks....more
In Louisiana et al v. Biden et al a federal district court granted relief to 16 states by enjoining the DOE’s pause in considering LNG export permits. The relief is not permanent. It means that the plaintiff-states have a...more
The U. S. Supreme Court struck down the “Chevron doctrine” that has plagued the citizenry of our great country since 1984. In Loper Bright Enterprises et al v. Raimondo, the Court ruled that the Administrative Procedure Act...more
It would be a heavy burden to catalogue all of the wrongs one might attribute to our Texas Attorney General. Now, we have another one. Opinion KP-0467, responding to a request from the Texas Real Estate Commission, concluded...more
In United States v. Osage Wind LLC a federal court in Oklahoma awarded permanent injunctive relief against a developer in the form of ejectment of a wind turbine farm after finding a continuing trespass....more
Briggs v. Southwestern Energy Production Company, LLC is good news for Pennsylvania mineral owners bringing claims for subsurface trespass by fracking.
In 2018 in “Briggs 1”, the Briggs family sued SWN for subsurface...more
In Occidental Permian, Ltd. et al v. Citation 2002 Investment LLC the Supreme Court construed a 1987 assignment from Shell Western E& P Inc. to Citation of a large number of properties. The instrument contained these...more
In Carl v. Hillcorp Energy the Supreme Court of Texas addressed the relationship between the lessee’s use of gas off-premises under a free-use clause and the lessor’s burden to share post-production costs (PPCs) under the...more
In the Estate of Larry Wayne Ewers is a reminder of a few guidelines for oil and gas investing:
Think twice before giving money to your scripture-spouting friend from church....more
In Citizens for Clean Air & Clean Water in Brazoria County et al v. United States Department of Transportation et al., several environmental groups challenged the DOT’s approval of a license for commercial construction and...more
5/13/2024
/ Crude Oil ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Energy Projects ,
Environmental Impact Statements ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Review ,
Licenses ,
NEPA ,
Oil & Gas ,
Ports ,
Statutory Violations ,
Transportation Corridor
Scheming to find the most remote and inaccessible county in Texas (my vote is Yoakum but there is no paucity of candidates) in which to dish out Texas home-town justice to an out-of-state defendant? Consider Bauer and Braxton...more
What to do with a Texas pipeline easement that doesn’t define the width? In Premcor Pipeline Company v. Wingate they fought about it. The dispute began when Premcor wanted to run a pig through one of two pipelines on...more
In ETC Tiger Pipeline LLC v. DT Midstream Inc. et al. it was not as exclusive as the servitude owner wanted it to be.
...more
Itching to sue the government for taking your property? Treme v. St. John the Baptist Parish Council is a reminder that you must have a property interest subject to being taken in order to have standing to sue for a...more
Recent Texas royalty cases seem to feature litigants on the fixed royalty side trying, more often than not in vain, to escape the clutches of Van Dyke v. Navigator and Hysaw v. Dawkins. See those decisions for the history of...more
If you deny the administrative state’s insatiable lust for dominion over the most mundane aspects of your everyday life, consider Louisiana, et al v. U.S. Department of Energy. Its more gradual than the noose but just as...more
This post is a summary of a more detailed Client Alert prepared by Gray Reed’s labor and employment practice group. Recall our recent post on the Department of Labor’s new “Economic Realities Test” for classifying...more
3/14/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Reform ,
Misclassification ,
Oil & Gas ,
Wage and Hour
Frontier Drilling, LLC v. XTO Energy, Inc. has the indicia of an inequitable result, but as I remind my wife every time she objects to what she deems to be an outrageous jury verdict, we don’t know all the facts and the...more