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 & […]
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. […]
Allocation Revisited
A few months ago I wrote on the Texas Railroad Commission’s issuance of permits for “Allocation Wells.” Specifically, I noted that EOG Resources, Inc., in 2012, applied for a permit to drill an Allocation Well that crossed leases in which it did not have the right to pool. The mineral owners protested the issuance of […]
“Accommodation” Revisited
An important doctrine comes in for clarification at the hands of the Texas Supreme Court On June 21, 2013, the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion on a case I have written about before, Merriman v. XTO Energy, Inc. The case, centering on the accommodation doctrine, involved a cattle rancher complaining that the location of […]
From the General Counsel: The Point of Valuation
In New Mexico, a challenge to a lower court’s decision has caused the state’s Supreme Court to take a longer look at what it means to pay a lessor an established portion of the “net proceeds” from the sale of gas. More than a few months ago I wrote about the Commissioner of Public Lands […]
From the General Counsel: No Going Back
The backdating of pooling agreements is not permissible, per the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court recently provided guidance on the practice of backdated pooling agreements when it denied review of a memorandum decision issued in June 2012 by the Eleventh Court of Appeals. Eddie E. Godfrey, individually, and Eddie E. Godfrey and Jay […]
From the General Counsel
When JOA’s Pass to Subsequent Purchasers The Joint Operating Agreement—not always the simplest contract to interpret—can spawn additional issues when “heirs, successors, and assigns” enter the picture. In late June of this year, TransTexas Gas Corp. (Sandridge Onshore, LLC, is now TransTexas’ successor in interest) filed a petition for review in the Texas Supreme […]
From the General Counsel
It Pays to Look Closely Property owners—or prospective owners—take heed: just because your county’s records do not show a lease as binding on your property does not mean that such a filing does not exist in an adjacent county. A not-often-relied-upon property code provision recently became the bane of one surface owner’s use of its […]
From the General Counsel
Accommodating the Accommodation Doctrine How the surface estate may be used—more specifically, whether a surface owner is incommoded by a mineral owner’s uses of that surface estate—is a question that the Texas Supreme Court is being called upon to answer. Recently the Texas Supreme Court was asked to clarify what a surface owner is required […]
From the General Counsel
New Mexico Beckons The possibility of changes to the “pit rule” could make the state more appealing to energy producers. Could relief be in sight for higher-priced oil and gas operations in New Mexico? May 14, 2012, saw the beginning of the public hearings in front of the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission regarding proposed […]