News & Analysis as of

Well Drilling Mineral Extraction

Goldberg Segalla

New California Bill Aims to Restore Local Governments’ Ability to Limit or Ban Certain Oil and Gas Extractions

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As reported to our readers in August 2023, the California Supreme Court in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. County of Monterey, (2023) Cal. LEXIS 4349, struck down a Monterey County initiative that would have banned oil and gas...more

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.

The Colorado Supreme Court Declines to Adopt Commercial Discovery Rule

Houston Harbaugh, P.C. on

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

Gray Reed

Supreme Court of Texas Tackles the Meaning of “Predecessors”

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The plain, ordinary, and generally accepted meaning of a word doesn’t mean “anything goes”. It depends on context, says the Supreme Court of Texas in Finley Resources Inc. v.  Headington Royalty Inc., a dispute over the...more

Gray Reed

California Brings Legislative Muscle To Its Attack on Oil Drilling

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California has passed Senate Bill 1137, which will prohibit drilling of new oil and gas wells and reworking of existing wells in certain areas. Here is SB 1137 in legislativese (analysis comes first, then the text)...more

Gray Reed

Court of Appeals Rules on Texas PSA Well Permit

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The Austin Court of Appeals has ruled in Texas Railroad Commission et al v. Opiela, the dispute over a permit for a horizontal well under a Production Sharing Agreement.  We reported on the result in the trial court. Here are...more

Gray Reed

A Day Made a Difference in This Purchase and Sale Agreement

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And what a difference it was! In Apache Corp. v. Apollo Expl. LLC et al, Apache and others acquired an oil and gas lease on 100,000+ acres in the Texas Panhandle. The primary term was three years. The effective date was...more

Holland & Hart LLP

EPA Proposes Widespread Ban on Methylene Chloride Under TSCA: Will Your Operations Be Impacted?

Holland & Hart LLP on

EPA has issued a proposed rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to ban most uses of methylene chloride, also known as dichloromethane or DCM. Methylene chloride is a chemical with a wide range of industrial and...more

Gray Reed

Lessee Can’t Satisfy Texas Supreme Court’s Force Majeure Requirements

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Imagine these facts in a force majeure dispute (as presented in Point Energy Partners Permian LLC et al. v. MRC Permian Company). Lessee (MRC) invokes the force majeure provision of an oil and gas lease, asserting that...more

Gray Reed

City of Dallas Owes $33+ Million for Drilling Permit Denials

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If you have ever wondered how many ways a cocktail of stupidity*, treachery and feckless government can inflict financial harm on the undeserving, including the citizens the feckless government leaders are supposed to serve,...more

Gray Reed

Well Operator Escapes Liability After Disposing of its Working Interest

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Does a former working-interest owner of a well bear continuing responsibility for a defective gas line despite having conveyed its ownership interest? The line was constructed by the former owner as operator of record, and it...more

Gray Reed

A Texas Lien is Invalid if the Mineral Owner is Not Yet Obligated to Pay

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A subcontractor’s mineral lien in Texas is invalid when, at the time the mineral owner receives notice of the lien affidavit, the mineral owner is not yet obligated to pay the contract price to its contractor.  So says Pearl...more

Gray Reed

Fair and Reasonable Offer Required Before Force-Pooling in Texas

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Ammonite Oil and Gas Corporation v. Railroad Commission of Texas illustrates the difficulties faced by lessees attempting to force-pool a tract under the Mineral Interest Pooling Act.  In this case, the applicant Ammonite...more

Gray Reed

What are “Drilling Operations”?

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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

Gray Reed

Well Operator Protected by the Model Form JOA

Gray Reed on

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

Gray Reed

My Operator is Making Money on the Well and I’m Not. What Can I Do? Part 1.

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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

Robins Kaplan LLP

Financial Daily Dose 10.25.2019 | Top Story: ECB Holds Rates Steady as Draghi Departs

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Mario Draghi presided over his final ECB meeting yesterday, with the central bank deciding to hold rates steady and let current stimulus measures play out for the time being. His departure (and the arrival of former IMF chief...more

Gray Reed

Spudding? Reworking? What are “Operations” Under an Oil and Gas Lease?

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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

Gray Reed

Gas Well Operator’s Injunction Against Texas Town is Dissolved

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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

Gray Reed

Colorado Rewrites the Rules of Oil and Gas Exploration

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Speedier than Jesse Owens in the ‘36 Olympics, Democrats railroaded the Colorado legislature passed, by party-line vote, Senate Bill 181, a new law that will have a profound effect on oil and gas operations in that state. It...more

Gray Reed

Colorado Oil and Gas Survives Another Challenge

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The Colorado oil and gas industry breathed a collective sigh of relief when the state Supreme Court announced its unanimous decision in Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission v. Martinez. ...more

Polsinelli

Colorado Supreme Court Vindicates the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission: Recent Ruling In Favor of the Oil and Gas Industry

Polsinelli on

In an important victory for Colorado’s oil and gas industry, the Colorado Supreme Court unanimously supported the decision of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (the “Commission”) to decline a rulemaking sought...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Colorado Supreme Court Issues Win for Oil and Gas Industry

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The Colorado Supreme Court on January 14 issued an opinion thought to be favorable to Colorado's oil and gas industry....more

Gray Reed

Trespass by Fracking Recognized in Pennsylvania

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Briggs v. Southwestern Energy is another way to say “chaos” in Pennsylvania. The Superior Court ruled that fracking may constitute a trespass when subsurface frac-fluid and proppants cross boundary lines and extend into the...more

Gray Reed

Farmout Agreement Worked Over By The Court

Gray Reed on

What could go wrong when the well recovers two times its costs in nine months? Plenty, as we see in Dimock v. Sutherland Energy....more

BakerHostetler

Pennsylvania Appeals Court Reverses Lower Court Decision and Allows a Natural Gas Well Project to Proceed in a Residential...

BakerHostetler on

On September 9, 2015, Judge Mary Leavitt of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the Court of Common Pleas of Lycoming County’s ruling, which had set aside the Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township’s (the...more

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