Planning for mineral rights is a crucial aspect of estate planning, specifically for landowners with valuable mineral assets. Mineral rights can significantly impact the value and management of an estate, and proper planning...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
Let’s assume you own 136 acres in Tioga County. In 2011, you signed a new oil and gas lease with ABC Production (the “2011 Lease”). The 2011 Lease had a five-year primary term which expired in October 2016. In 2014, ABC...more
If you are scoring at home, count Permico Royalties LLC v. Barron Properties, Ltd., as a win for “floating” in the fixed-or-floating royalty battles. Permico, successor to grantors in a 1937 Deed for a tract in Ward County,...more
Rhetorical Question: When will Texas be done with fixed/floating royalty cases such as Johnson et al v. Clifton et al? Rhetorical Answer: When scriveners of deeds that are open to eight conceivably plausible meanings...more
Producers disappointed by the Supreme Court’s holding in Devon Energy Production v. Sheppard might have reason to feel vindicated. The question in HL Hawkins Jr., Inc. v. Capitan Energy Inc. et al. was whether producer...more
While the unexpected and unpredictable commodity price swings over the last year have undoubtedly captured the attention of mineral and royalty owners across the United States, careful attention should also be paid to a few...more
The question in Brooke-Willbanks v. Flatland Mineral Fund LP, et al was which party to a Texas mineral deed would bear the burden of two previously reserved nonparticipating royalty interests....more
The takeaway from Hahn v. ConocoPhillips Company is that in Texas a NPRI holder may not diminish his rights by ratifying pooling of an oil and gas lease unless there are provisions explicitly purporting to do so....more
Louisiana’s compulsory pooling scheme seeks to balance the interests of individual landowners and oil and gas operators to promote responsible development of natural resources. Because of compulsory pooling, operators are not...more
Default in paying monthly mineral sales royalties leads to an obligation to pay up front the present value of future royalties. A decision (Thalanga Copper Mines Pty Ltd v Cromarty Resources Pty Ltd [2021] NSWSC 640 (4 June...more
BlueStone Nat. Res. II, LLC v. Nettye Engler Energy, LP is another Texas case deciding whether language creating a nonparticipating royalty interest prohibited deduction of post-production costs. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t....more
The threat: You, the operator, are operating unprofitable wells where monthly costs exceed or barely equal revenues, making money on the fixed COPAS overhead charges. Your non-operators are going into the economic hole and...more
With the plunge in commodity prices many formerly profitable wells are now in the red, and we don’t know for how long. This is causing non-operators to question the bona fides of the operations … and of the operator, and to...more
The answer depends on what part of “the oil business” you care about. The 86th Legislature produced a few, but not many, changes in laws affecting the business, (most going into effect on September 1). ...more
On October 31, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a final rule (available here) that overhauls its existing disclosure requirements for mining company issuers, including royalty companies. The new...more
New rules issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that require resource extraction issuers to disclose payments made to U.S. and foreign governments for the commercial development of oil, natural gas or...more
On June 27, the Supreme Court of Texas issued an opinion in Marcia Fuller French, et al v. Occidental Permian Ltd., No 12-002 (Tex. June 27, 2014), a case closely followed by the oil and gas industry. In its unanimous...more