In re Luminant Generation Company LLC et al is a bitter pill for the litigation hangover from Winter Storm Uri. Takeaway: Texas does not recognize a legal duty owed by wholesale power generators to retail customers to provide...more
1/3/2024
/ Cause of Action Accrual ,
Electric Generation Suppliers ,
Electricity ,
Gross Negligence ,
Infrastructure ,
Negligence ,
Oil & Gas ,
Power Grid ,
Public Safety ,
Retail Market ,
Severe Weather ,
Supply Chain ,
Texas
Parkman v. W&T Offshore, Inc., et al features two contractors playing hot potato over liability for a company man’s alleged negligence. The takeaway: Write your Master Service Agreement to address your liability concerns, and...more
Most states call it a third-party beneficiary contract. Leave it to Louisiana to be different. In Adams v. Chevron USA Inc., the plaintiffs claimed that oilfield pipe-cleaning activities of Chevron and others contaminated...more
Withrow v. Chevron is another Louisiana legacy lawsuit, this one claiming that defendants Chevron and Vernon E. Faulconer, Inc., and their predecessors, improperly disposed of toxic and hazardous oilfield wastes in unlined...more
8/10/2022
/ Chevron ,
Contaminated Properties ,
Hazardous Waste ,
Mineral Extraction ,
Mineral Rights ,
Negligence ,
Nuisance ,
Oil & Gas ,
Site Remediation ,
Tort ,
Trespass
At issue in RKI Exploration and Production LLC v. AmeriFlow Energy Services LLC and Crescent Services, LLC. were two Master Service Agreements. RKI was the operator of a well in Loving County; AmeriFlow and Crescent were...more
7/21/2022
/ Contract Disputes ,
Contract Terms ,
Damages ,
Employees ,
Indemnity ,
Liability ,
Master Service Agreement ,
Negligence ,
Oil & Gas ,
Settlement Negotiations ,
Workplace Injury
Is it worth spending extra dollars, days, and windshield time to discover what mischief your oil and gas operator might be making on your property? The landowner-plaintiffs in Mustafa v. Americo Energy would certainly say so....more
The Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code, Chapter 95, limits a property owner’s liability when an independent contractor hired to construct, repair, renovate or modify an improvement to the owner’s property brings a...more
Foote and Cypert v. Texcel Exploration and Decker determined that cattle loitering uninvited around a well and tank battery are trespassers, not licensees.
How it happened -
Foote arranged with Yates to graze 650 head...more
Apache Corporation v. Castex Offshore Inc. et al, answers the question, What constitutes willful misconduct in oil field operations? This was a breach of contract suit involving operator Apache and non-operator Castex....more
Let’s set aside fracking challenges, low prices, and pipeline rejections to discuss the mundane. Should you as an owner of property be concerned about premises liability claims? We’re talking about the office environment and...more
In Texas losing a title dispute doesn’t mean you committed myriad heinous torts by asserting your rights in the first place. The test: Were you reasonable in bringing your colorable but not correct claim? So says Dorfman v. J...more
No, at least not in Dimmit County, Texas, under the facts of In Re: Wood Group PSN, Inc. et al. Twenty-nine contractors and producers were sued by Dimmitt County for damaging a 6.9 mile long non-asphalt county road by their...more
Did Texas law or New Mexico law apply to knock-for-knock indemnity provisions of a Master Work and Services Agreement? When a contract itself explicitly calls for Texas law, that is likely to be the outcome, as it was in...more
Harrison v. Rosetta Resources Operating LP presents a wacky? time-wasting? clever? unsuccessful attempt to expand reinvent the Texas accomodation doctrine....more
8/28/2018
/ Breach of Contract ,
Damages ,
Energy Sector ,
Gross Negligence ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Natural Resources ,
Negligence ,
Oil & Gas ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
State and Local Government ,
Trespass
Cardoso-Gonzales v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. addressed the all-important indemnity and insurance provisions in Master Service Agreements in light of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity...more
Louisiana practitioners and their clients tend to know this particular point of Louisiana law, but it could surprise out-of-staters (known in their native habitat as “Texans”), so it’s worth a reminder...more
7/17/2018
/ Breach of Contract ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Terms ,
Damages ,
Energy Sector ,
Gas Royalties ,
Liability ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Leases ,
Negligence ,
Oil & Gas ,
Statutory Requirements
We are reminded in Claybar v. Samson Exploration that a court will (if it’s doing its job) enforce an agreement according to what it actually says, not by that which one party or the other would have liked it to say or...more
There’s no better place in the oil patch to play the blame game than 10,000 feet of leaky wellbore.
What went wrong?
In Justiss v. Oil Country Tubular Corporation, Justiss, a drilling contractor, entered into an IADC...more
The lessons in Craddick Partners Ltd. v. EnerSciences Holdings, LLC are three: Parties who have not signed an agreement to arbitrate have standing to compel arbitration; artful pleading to avoid arbitration won’t work; and...more
“Back in the day, when the Yankees always won the World Series and you could name a park after a Confederate general, we didn’t need no written contract; a man’s word was his bond, … yadda, yadda, yadda”....more
“You are my friend, kind of.” Hush Puppy, as she stares down the Aurochs in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Is our “friend” the Texas Railroad Commission?
Gulf Energy bought a package of offshore wells out of bankruptcy....more
Are you an operator who hires contractors on location, … a contractor who hires subcontractors, … the party to be indemnified for injuries to the other party’s employees? This post is for you.
Salas v. Allen Keller...more
11/4/2015
/ Construction Industry ,
Contractors ,
Highways ,
Master Service Agreement ,
Negligence ,
Operators ,
Subcontractors ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Injury ,
Workplace Safety ,
Wrongful Death
You might recall previous entries discussing Parr v. Aruba – a suit for personal injuries from oilfield pollution (and a $2.9MM verdict for the plaintiffs). Not all similar suits have the same result....more
10/28/2015
/ Appeals ,
Chemical Spills ,
Energy Sector ,
Hydrocarbons ,
Marathon Oil ,
Negligence ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pollution Control ,
Private Nuisance ,
Summary Judgment ,
Toxic Chemicals ,
Toxic Exposure
Therapist: “We’re here today in group to bring closure to the traumatic events of Crosstex North Texas Pipeline L.P. v. Gardiner. Each side claims mistreatment by his adversary and by one component or another of the civil...more
You do, whether you are a vendor or an operator. Matador Production Company vs. Weatherford Artificial Lift Systems, Inc. is a treatise on what can go wrong with a frac job: Failure of pumps, worker inexperience, failure of...more