What if you pay good money for a mineral interest and record the deed in the official public records, thereby securing your title? What if your predecessors-in-title decide among themselves they made a material mistake in a...more
This is the conclusion of a five part series reviewing False Alarm, How Climate Panic Costs us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet, by Bjorn Lomborg. ...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
In Opiela v. Railroad Commission of Texas and Magnolia Oil and Gas Operating, LLC, an Austin district court determined that the Commission’s Final Order granting a permit for a Production Sharing Agreement well in Karnes...more
This is another chapter in the long-running dispute between Eagle Oil & Gas Co. and. TRO-X, L.P. The litigation arises out of an agreement to acquire and sell oil and gas leases. Here, TRO-X alleges that Eagle failed to...more
The Texas Supreme Court in Concho Resources, Inc. v. Ellison enforced a boundary stipulation involving an unambiguous deed about which there had been no dispute. You can refer to our earlier post to understand the facts, the...more
This is a continuation of a five part series reviewing False Alarm, How Climate Panic Costs us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet, by Bjorn Lomborg....more
4/29/2021
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Carbon Taxes ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Policy ,
Environmental Policies ,
Fossil Fuel ,
Infrastructure ,
Oil & Gas ,
Paris Agreement ,
Solar Energy ,
Wind Power
The central issue in the Texas case of Cook v. Cimarex Energy Co.: Did Cook grant Cimarex a right of way across Cook’s land to the location of two Cimarex wells. No he didn’t. Reversing the trial court, the court of appeals...more
Bell v. Midway Petroleum Grp., L.P., 9th Dist.] Mar. 18, 2021 was a trespass to try title action, suit to quiet title for possession of a land, and a counterclaim for title by adverse possession. ...more
Texas lien law in some cases does not require the filing of a financing statement for priority perfection. However, as you might have learned in In re First River Energy, the Delaware Uniform Commercial Code did not recognize...more
As Humpty Dumpty would have said to Alice if he were Justice Dumpty of the Texas Supreme Court, the term means whatever the parties to an oil and gas lease say it means, neither more nor less. In Sundown Energy LP, et al. v....more
What is the standard of care imposed by the Model Form JOA on the well operator? Crimson Exploration Op., Inc. v. BPX Op. Co. gives us the answer, and it is no surprise....more
This is a continuation of a five part series reviewing False Alarm: How Climate Panic Costs us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet by Bjorn Lomborg. ...more
4/8/2021
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Carbon Taxes ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Policy ,
Environmental Policies ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Oil & Gas ,
Renewable Energy ,
Solar Energy ,
Wind Power
The Supreme Court of Texas has ruled that oil and gas leases under consideration in BlueStone Natural Resources II, LLC v. Walker Murray Randle, et al. did not permit deduction of postproduction costs from sales proceeds...more
Yesterday we discussed aspects of PPC Acquisition Co., LLC, et al. v. Delaware Basin Res., LLC, et al. Today we consider whether the retained-acreage clauses created a special limitation or a covenant and the relationship...more
PPC Acquisition Co., LLC, et al. v. Delaware Basin Res., LLC, et al. addressed retained acreage clauses in three separate oil and gas leases covering the same 640-acre tract in Reeves County, Texas....more
In Susan Davis Van Dyke et al. v. The Navigator Group. et al., the Eastland court of appeals applied recent fixed-versus-floating NPRI principles to a double-fraction mineral interest reservation....more
EXTREME WEATHER OR EXTREME EXAGGERATION?
About half of Wallace-Wells’s book, Uninhabitable Earth, is devoted to what he describes as the “Elements of Chaos” that will result from man-made climate change unless fossil fuels...more
What could possibly go wrong when drill pipe and a delivery ticket are sent to a well location? Well …
The facts -
In Knight Oil Tools v. Rippy Oil Company, Knight rented drill pipe to Rippy for an Eagle Ford well....more
2/22/2021
/ Breach of Warranty ,
Fitness for Particular Purpose ,
Implied Warranties ,
Indemnity ,
Jury Trial ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Negligent Misrepresentation ,
Oil & Gas ,
Product Defects ,
Unpaid Accounts ,
Vendors ,
Well Drilling
Joe Biden’s inauguration as President of the United States promises to bring the issue of climate change to the fore in the United States like never before. There is likely no issue on the horizon more likely to affect the...more
2/17/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Policy ,
Environmental Policies ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
Oil & Gas ,
Paris Agreement
The lesson from In re First River Energy LLC: Even though Texas lien law does not require the filing of a financing statement for perfection, file one anyway. It will be helpful in the event a dispute is decided under the...more
2/11/2021
/ Chapter 11 ,
Choice-of-Law ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Downstream Agreements ,
Infrastructure ,
Liens ,
Midstream Contracts ,
Oil & Gas ,
Ownership Interest ,
Perfected Security Interest ,
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
In Exxon Mobil Corp. v. United States of America, from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ExxonMobil learned the hard way that filing amended tax returns can be very costly....more
2/3/2021
/ Amended Tax Returns ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Exxon Mobil ,
IRS ,
Malaysia ,
Mineral Leases ,
Oil & Gas ,
Partnerships ,
Qatar ,
Tax Fraud ,
Tax Liability ,
Tax Refunds ,
Tax Returns
In a precurser of disputes sure to come, in Lyle v. Midway Solar, LLC, a Texas court of appeals delivered a win for solar energy by applying the accommodation doctrine in favor of a solar developer’s actual use of the surface...more
After a trial court order, two appellate opinions, a dissent, and another appellate opinion, the tension between a well operator and an adjacent mineral owner over whether hydraulic fracturing can constitute a subsurface...more
Larceny, that business enterprise with a knack for (fleeting) success regardless of the state of the economy, was busy last year. As Obi-Wan Kenobe would say it: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy...more
1/12/2021
/ Bribery ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraudulent Procurement ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Infrastructure ,
Money Laundering ,
Oil & Gas ,
Ponzi Scheme ,
White Collar Crimes