When a Texas mineral owner asks me to review or negotiate an oil and gas lease offer they have received, one of the first things I do is to determine who the proposed operator, or lessee, will be. Many people do not realize how important it is to know just…
I spend a significant amount of time as a Texas oil and gas attorney assisting landowners with negotiation of easements and rights-of-way for oil or gas pipelines. As my client and I work through the negotiation process, it is vital to understand the various options available to the pipeline company…
It is incumbent upon a Texas oil and gas lawyer to keep abreast of all relevant decisions from appellate courts and the state’s highest court. Proper advocacy demands that attorneys understand changes in the law and be able to incorporate those changes in their legal representation. Lawyers must have an…
Practicing oil and gas law in Texas competently also requires being aware of the “bigger picture” in which I work. One component of that bigger picture these days is the issue of energy independence. Energy independence has become a major political issue in recent years, and has resulted in increased…
An experienced oil and gas lawyer understands how politics influences the rules and regulations placed upon those working in the energy industry. Unfortunately, that political influence means that decisions about how the industry is regulated are often not guided by common sense, logic, and fair-minded decision-making. Instead, oil and gas…
Texas oil and gas attorneys are watching with trepidation as Obama seeks to cripple domestic mineral production with his ill-conceived policies. In our previous post, we discussed the Obama administration’s push to eliminate some of the tax subsidies that oil and gas producers in the United States currently enjoy. One…
Texas oil and gas attorneys are watching the recent series of drilling moratoriums by the federal government with great interest. In a recent blog post, I discussed the legal background behind the first deepwater drilling moratorium and the litigation that followed.Because a federal judge ruled that the first deepwater drilling…
As a Texas oil and gas attorney, I have followed with great interest the actions of the US Department of Interior (DOI) to finally lift the post-BP Oil Spill moratorium on deepwater drilling. It has been a long and legally complex road, but finally the DOI has taken the initial…
As a Texas oil and gas attorney, I am keenly interested in the political climate in which the oil and gas industry operates. Politics has a lot to do with how much oil and gas this country produces. For example, in the White House’s proposed Budget for the Department of…
As a Texas oil and gas attorney, I have authored a series of articles on this site concerning the pros and cons of alternative energy. As I prepared to return to the topic, I began to ponder a more general question. When we use the phrase “alternative energy” or “alternative…