Ever since the Sabine Oil and Gas Corp. bankruptcy (the top of the first, If it were baseball), where a New York court construed Texas property law to hold that a gathering agreement was not a covenant running with the land,...more
The concurrence and dissent in Briggs et al v. Southwestern Energy Production Company appears to be of little help to property owners complaining of trespass by fracking where there is no invasion of frack fluids on to the...more
1/30/2020
/ Adjacent Property Owners ,
Discovery ,
Fracking ,
Natural Resources ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pleading Standards ,
Property Owners ,
Real Estate Market ,
Rule of Capture ,
Summary Judgment ,
Trespass ,
Well Drilling
Herein, highlights from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Briggs, et al. v. Southwestern Energy Production Company. The rule of capture applies to oil and gas produced from wells completed using hydraulic fracturing and...more
1/28/2020
/ Adjacent Property Owners ,
Fracking ,
Natural Resources ,
Oil & Gas ,
PA Supreme Court ,
Popular ,
Property Owners ,
Real Estate Market ,
Rule of Capture ,
Summary Judgment ,
Trespass ,
Well Drilling
Yet another entry in the Strip and Gore universe (2012’s “Beware of Strips and Gores”, and 2019’s “Strip and Gore 2: The Sequel”) comes to us from Fort Worth Court of Appeals: Richard D. Crawford v. XTO Energy, Inc....more
1/21/2020
/ Appeals ,
Energy Exploration ,
Grantors ,
Ingress/Egress ,
Land Titles ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
Real Estate Market ,
Transfer of Rights ,
Well Drilling
To our bad guys, 2019 was a year flush with hope and opportunity; it ended with recidivism, more misery from Venezuela, a charlatan, an Okie who pulled a multi-million dollar fast-one on Chesapeake and, as in years past, a...more
1/16/2020
/ Annuities ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Bribery ,
Corruption ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Felonies ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Foreign Exchanges ,
Forfeiture ,
Fraud ,
HSBC ,
Identity Theft ,
Investment Fraud ,
Kickbacks ,
Money Laundering ,
Oil & Gas ,
Plea Agreements ,
Restitution ,
Securities Act ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Fraud ,
Theft ,
Venezuela ,
Wastewater ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Wire Fraud
Our sympathies go out to those in the oilfield services industry in Texas—it looks like you got a lump of coal. In Mesa Southern CWS Acquisition v. Deep Energy Exploration Partners the Houston Court of Appeals upended the...more
12/31/2019
/ Contract Terms ,
Liens ,
Master Service Agreement ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Leases ,
Minerals ,
Oil & Gas ,
Public Policy ,
Void and Unenforceable ,
Waiver of Rights ,
Waivers ,
Well Drilling
Confirming the obvious, in In re Etheridge a Texas court concluded that “personal effects,” in a last will and testament did not include mineral royalties. Let’s investigate how the case got this far....more
Suing a state and its public officials is difficult because of the doctrine of sovereign immunity. There are exceptions. State of Texas v. Signal Drilling, et al. presents several of them....more
Let’s talk the Duhig Rule and estoppel by deed in Texas. Don’t run away yet. We’ll get to the point quickly and then you can leave....more
In Texan Land & Cattle II, Ltd. v. ExxonMobil Pipeline Company a Texas court of appeals ruled that “oil or gas” is not limited to “crude petroleum,” but includes refined petroleum products gasoline and diesel....more
Reports on the inevitable death of the fossil fuel industry are overdone (assuming it isn’t kidnapped in the middle of the night by the next administration and murdered by litigation, regulation and executive fiat). ...more
Scribner v. Wineinger, et al. affirms that acquisition of a Texas oil and gas leasehold by limitations is not defeated if the adverse possessor’s acknowledgement of a claimant’s title comes too late....more
The 2019 Texas legislature enacted a new Property Code Section 5.152 to protect mineral and royalty owners from a certain species of fraudulent transactions perpetrated on trusting and/or naïve and/or out of state mineral...more
11/5/2019
/ Contract Interpretation ,
Contract Terms ,
Fraud ,
Fraudulent Conveyance ,
Future Royalties ,
Gas Royalties ,
Land Titles ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
Property Owners ,
Scams ,
Transfer of Interest
Under Louisiana law, does the operator’s bad faith preclude recovery for the non-operator’s breach of a joint operating agreement if the operator caused the non-operator to breach the JOA but did not itself breach?...more
10/31/2019
/ Ambiguous ,
Bad Faith ,
Breach of Contract ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Interpretation ,
Contract Terms ,
Deepwater Horizon ,
Diversity Jurisdiction ,
Good Faith ,
Joint Operating Agreement ,
Offshore Drilling ,
Oil & Gas ,
Operating Agreements
Until Monarch Midstream v. Badlands Energy, midstream companies facing rejection of their contracts in a producer’s bankruptcy were left with Abraham Lincoln’s least favorite negotiating option: If the both law and the facts...more
That’s a good thing if you like what the EPA is doing, not so much if you are its sworn enemy. In Center for Biological Diversity v. US EPA the plaintiff did not have standing so sue the EPA over the granting of a water...more
10/11/2019
/ Article III ,
Center for Biological Diversity ,
Clean Water Act ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
NEPA ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pollution Control ,
Standing ,
Substantial Nexus
It depends on which “debate” you’re talking about. What if there were an honest debate about all aspects of climate change? It wouldn’t be a faux debate about whether the world will end before the next Mardi Gras or during...more
In Mary et al. QEP Energy Company the question was, given an encroachment of a pipeline onto the property of another, what is the test for determining the good faith, or not, of the party in possession?...more
Quick answer: It depends on what the lease says. Last week featured a tug-of-war between a producer and the community in which it operates; this week in HJSA No. 3 LP v. Sundown Energy LP it’s the producer and the lessor....more
9/19/2019
/ Abandonment ,
Business Operations ,
Contract Terms ,
Forfeiture ,
Lease Termination ,
Mineral Extraction ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
Ongoing Operations ,
Rules of Construction ,
Well Drilling
In Town of Flower Mound v. Eagle Ridge Operating LLC, an operator’s injunction against enforcement of a local ordinance was dissolved. EagleRidge operates gas wells in the Flower Mound. A Town ordinance prohibits work on gas...more
9/12/2019
/ Appeals ,
Injunctions ,
Local Ordinance ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Extraction ,
Motion to Dissolve ,
Motion To Enjoin ,
Real Estate Market ,
Variances ,
Water ,
Well Drilling
Can an email be directed to a particular state? No, said a Texas court in Enerquest Oil & Gas, LLC v. Antero Resources Corporation. The court questioned “the very premise of the contention that an email can be sent to a...more
9/5/2019
/ Confidential Information ,
Cybersecurity ,
Due Process ,
Electronic Communications ,
Email ,
General Jurisdiction ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Residents ,
Oil & Gas ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Principal Place of Business ,
Specific Jurisdiction ,
Trade Secrets
Recall a recent post about the bidding war among presidential aspirants as they battle to see whose climate agenda will appease the left wing of the left wing of the Democratic Party. If that weren’t enough, Comrade Bernie...more
What’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander, at least in some places. It appears that the North Dakota Supreme Court has adopted the minority “ Marketable Product Rule” in connection with a 1979 North Dakota...more
Nabors Offshore Corp. v. Whistler Energy II LLC is the rare bankruptcy case where the outcome was consistent with the realities of operating in the oil patch rather than the artificial constraints of the Bankruptcy Code. The...more
It’s still true, “Whiskey’s for drinkin’, water’s for fightin’.” Gray Reed lawyers Brock Neizgoda and Steven Cooney spoke to TIPRO’s summer conference on the use, control and ownership of water in oil and gas operations. ...more