In Bridges v. Uhl, No. 08-21-00130-CV, (Tex. App.—El Paso 2022, no pet. h.) the El Paso Court of Appeals added it’s decision to the already substantial volume of court decisions grappling with the question of whether the royalty language in a deed was a fixed or a floating royalty. The…
The Texas Supreme Court has just issued an opinion in Point Energy Partners Permian LLC v. MRC Permian Co., ___ S.W.3d ___, 2023 WL ___, (Tex. Apr. 21, 2023) that involves the application of the force majeure language in an oil and gas lease. Force majeure is a legal doctrine…
The Texas Supreme Court recently issued an opinion in a case in which royalties were calculated on more than gross proceeds. Specifically, the Court approved royalty language that calculated royalty on the total of gross proceeds (which by definition does not include expenses) and post-sale expenses. In Devon Energy Prod.…
The Texas Supreme Court interpreted yet another confused mineral reservation in a deed in the case of Van Dyke v. Navigator Grp., ___ S.W.3d ___, 2023 WL ___ (Tex. Feb. 17, 2023). The 1924 deed contained a reservation of “one-half of one-eighth” of the mineral estate. The question was: did…
Texas oil and gas companies can engage in a variety of procedures as part of their exploratory process before they drill an oil and gas well. One such procedure is seismic testing or a seismic survey. Seismic testing is a process that results in an image of the subsurface of…
In a case last year before the Texas Supreme Court, BPX Operating Co. v. Strickhausen, 629 S. W. 3d. 189 (Tex. 2021), the Court addressed whether the acceptance of royalty checks by a lessor constituted a ratification of the oil company’s pooling of the leased premises in violation of the…
The Texas Supreme Court recently issued its long-awaited opinion in Terrance J. Hlavinka et al v. HSC Pipeline Partnership, LLC, —S.W.3d— (Tex. May 27, 2022). There were two important issues in this case: (1) whether a pipeline company transporting polymer-grade propylene can be a common carrier with condemnation authority under…
In a recent case decided by the Eastland Court of Appeals in Texas, Foote v. Texcel Exploration, Inc., the Court held that the operator of an oil well was not liable for cows apparently killed by an oil and salt water spill. The Plaintiff leased property for grazing 650 head…
The Texas Supreme Court recently issued its decision in Nettye Engler Energy L.P. v. BluStone Natural Resources II, LLC, Cause No. 20-0639, which has added to the Texas jurisprudence on the frequently litigated subject of post-production costs that can be deducted from a royalty interest. The deed that conveyed the…
The Texas Supreme Court, in the recent decision of BPX Operating Co. et al. v. Margaret Ann Stockhausen, denied an oil company’s claim that acceptance of royalty checks by the mineral/royalty owner ratified the oil company’s illegal pooling of her property. Strickhausen owned property in LaSalle County, Texas. She negotiated…