In January of last year, the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas issued an opinion that centered on surface use by an oil and gas operator. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment, which found in favor of the surface owners, Will and Loree Hegar. The operator, Key Operating & […]
Mitigation, CCAAs, and More
This is the month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is scheduled make the final decision on whether to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as Threatened or Endangered. The PBPA endangered species committee and I have worked constantly for the last fifty years to prevent this potentially devastating decision from occurring. Well, maybe it […]
New Mexico Begins 30-Day Session
By the time this issue circulates, the New Mexico Legislature will be more than halfway through its 30-day Legislative Session. Whether that lawmaking occasion will produce or amend any oil and gas legislation is a question on the minds of some, but answers won’t be clear until the proceedings are well under way. By Feb. […]
Subsurface Trespass Considered
In a previous issue, we discussed the question of subsurface trespass, which was before the Texas Supreme Court in the case styled FPL Farming Ltd. v. Environmental Processing Systems, L.C. In that case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Beaumont held that the operator, Environmental Processing Systems, L.C., (“EPS”) was immune from subsurface trespass […]
From the President – February 2014
Injection Wells, NM Legislative Matters, and More Railroad Commissioner David Porter attended a town hall meeting in Azle, Texas, January 2nd, to listen to residents’ concerns regarding earthquakes in Parker County. Late last year, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced that it was sending seismic equipment and staff to Parker County to try to determine […]
From the Chairman of the Board – February 2014
Mexico’s Energy Reform Bill: The Aperatura Mexico’s government has taken the initial bold step to open up its energy sector to private investment. While the Energy Reform Bill was signed into law by Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto on December 21st, following approval by both houses of Congress and a majority of Mexico’s 31 states, secondary […]
The Horizontal Severance Question
As many know, Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc., (“Pioneer”), recently requested that the Texas Railroad Commission amend the field rules for the Spraberry (Trend Area) Field in Districts 7C and 8 to allow for duplicate assignment of acreage when mineral rights were horizontally severed. Statewide Rule 40(d) prohibits the duplicate assignment of acreage. The Spraberry […]
Light Sweet Crude and Refineries: An Overload in the Making
At the PBPA Annual Meeting, Pioneer Natural Resources’ President and COO Tim Dove raised a concern about the growing excess of light sweet crude being developed in the unconventional plays in the Permian Basin, exacerbated by the light crude and condensate being developed in the Eagle Ford. Not coincidentally, Pioneer is one of the major […]
From the General Counsel: A Matter of Balance
The Eleventh Court of Appeals, located in Eastland, Texas, recently dealt with an issue I tend to avoid, if I can, in these articles: the seemingly never-ending dispute between the respective rights of surface owners and oil and gas operators. In this unique case, the operator, Southwest Royalties, Inc. (SRI), sued the surface owner, Mr. […]
From the Chairman: The Place to Be
As I look out the window at a bluebird sky in Midland, I breathe a satisfied sigh of relief that October has passed as I participated in four conferences: NMOGA in Santa Fe, the Executive Oil Conference in Midland, Pine Brook Road Partners’ Annual Investor Conference in New York, and the Permian Basin Petroleum Association […]
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