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
You might recall our posts on litigation by states, counties, and cities blaming a host of calamities, real and imagined, past and future, on Big Oil. The producers tried their best to remove the cases to federal court. In a...more
5/17/2023
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Policy ,
Energy Reform ,
Environmental Policies ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
Jurisdiction ,
Net Zero ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pollution Control
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
5/10/2023
/ Civil Conspiracy ,
Constructive Trusts ,
Force Majeure Clause ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Extraction ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
Repudiation ,
Tortious Interference ,
Trespass ,
Well Drilling
In TotalEnergies E&P USA, Inc. v. MP Gulf of Mexico LLC. the Supreme Court of Texas resolved the chaos created by conflicting dispute resolution regimes in three contracts for ownership and operation of an offshore unit and...more
Golden Eagle Resources II LLC v. Rice Drilling D LLC. presents a small step in the development of subsurface trespass law in Ohio. The federal court considered a motion to dismiss, in which it evaluated the sufficiency of the...more
As you negotiate your master service agreements are you confident that you know how insurance choices might affect indemnity obligations? Me neither. That’s why I turn to my Gray Reed partner Darin Brooks and his insurance...more
4/19/2023
/ Breach of Contract ,
Commercial Insurance Policies ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Terms ,
Denial of Insurance Coverage ,
Exxon Mobil ,
Indemnity ,
Insurance Claims ,
Master Service Agreement ,
National Union ,
Oil & Gas ,
Umbrella Policies ,
Workplace Injury
MIECO, LLC v. Pioneer Natural Resources presented a challenge to a force majeure defense in a dispute arising from Winter Storm Uri. The defense carried the day....more
In a recurring theme, harmony and the four-corners rule were front and center in Citation 2002 Inv. LLC et al v. Occidental Permian, Ltd. et al, a case of competing claims over the granting language in an assignment of oil...more
Davis v. COG Operating, LLC, in construing a Warranty Deed with a reservation of minerals, applied the estate-misconception doctrine and denied the presumed grant doctrine. At issue were three instruments...more
In Devon Energy Production Company, LP et al v. Sheppard et al, the Supreme Court of Texas construed what it referred to as a “bespoke” and “highly unique” royalty clause in several oil and gas leases to prohibit the...more
With it being Lent and all, we ask, are this year’s Ferrymen of the River Styx using these 40 days to turn from wickedness and find their way to repentence? Who knows, but we do know that as alternative energy rises, so do...more
3/7/2023
/ Bribery ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fraud ,
Infrastructure ,
Money Laundering ,
Oil & Gas ,
Renewable Energy ,
Securities Fraud ,
Wind Power ,
Wire Fraud
Texas courts continue to address the “fixed or floating” non-participating royalty interest question. The El Paso Court of Appeals’ answer in Bridges v. Uhl et al. was floating, based on the language in that particular...more
Ellison v. Three Rivers Acquisition LLC et al., on remand from the Texas Supreme Court, is the third round of a boundary dispute between mineral lessees in Irion County.
For the history of Ms. Ellison’s odyssey from...more
The negotiators and scriveners of the purchase and sale agreement in Matter of PetroQuest Energy, Incorporated would have been well served to have considered all the potential ramifications, however remote, flowing from the...more
Delay in filing suit too often spells doom for the plaintiff, as we learn in Zadeck Succession et al v. Treme et al.
Treme (as in the family collectively) claimed their father, Vandiver, was conveyed a 5% working...more
The issue in QBE Syndicate 1036 v. Compass Minerals Louisiana, LLC was whether the scope of the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnification Act applies to operations involving salt mining?
QBE issued a commercial general...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
The question in Kim R. Smith Logging Inc. v. Indigo Minerals LLC was whether a disgruntled Louisiana royalty owner sent its demand for unpaid royalties to the right party. It turns out that it did....more
Precious little legal analysis is required to grasp the lesson from Springbok Royalty Partners v. Cook. No mode or manner of legal gymnastics is likely to save parties from the legal effect of a contract they didn’t bother...more
We’ll end the year end with a look at “COP27”, the all-expense-paid shindig that was the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, featuring exaggerations, hysteria, and outright misstatements burning with...more
Let’s begin with some Texas law on what a seller sells when he executes a deed:
Generally, a Texas real property deed will confer upon the grantee the greatest estate as the terms of the instrument will permit. This...more
Wagner v. Exxon Mobil Corporation is an example of the misfortune that can befall the purchaser who assumes the burden of comprehensive, one-sided indemnity obligations. We will disregard evidentiary and other issues in this...more
The Kingfish would be proud of the Louisiana Supreme Court in Louisiana Ex Rel Tureau v. BEPCO, L.P. et al. The issues were the prescriptive period applicable to a citizen suit for injunctive relief under R.S. 30:16 and...more
Let’s proceed directly to the takeaways from Fort Apache Energy, Inc. v. Short OG III, Ltd., et al, a Southern District of Texas bankruptcy court opinion. (Gray Reed partners Jim Ormiston and David Leonard represented Short...more