A case that has gained attention in the Texas oil and gas industry is the case of Samson Exploration v. T.S. Reed Properties which is currently awaiting a decision by the Texas Supreme Court. The case involves three gas wells and two mistakenly overlapping pooling units in Hardin County, Texas. …
The Texas 14th Court of Appeals recently decided the case an interesting case, Clay Exploration, Inc. v. Santa Rosa Operating, LLC, concerning who has the right to execute oil and gas leases for unknown owners. In 1889 Frederick Kastan and Gustav Heye purchased 102 acres in Grimes County, Texas. Subsequently,…
The case of Rippy Interests LLC. v. Nash, LLC is interesting because it examines what type of operations will keep a Texas oil and gas lease in force after the primary term has expired, and also what constitutes a repudiation of an oil and gas lease in Texas. On January…
In 2015, Enterprise Product Partners announced plans for a new pipeline that will run over 400 miles from Midland, Texas to Sealy, Texas. The yet-to-be-named pipeline will originate at Enterprise Product Partners’ trading and storage hub in Midland and will connect with the eighty mile Rancho II pipeline in Sealy.…
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an unpublished opinion last year in Waggoner v. Denbury Onshore, LLC, et al. concerning the application of state antitrust law to royalty payments. It should be noted that while the opinion is instructive on how the 5th Circuit Court…
On May 12, 2016, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its final Methane Rule, mandating new limits on methane gas emissions, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions and other by-products such as benzene associated with oil and natural gas production wells and storage tanks. The new EPA rule is…
In 1994 Roland Oil Co. acquired the North Charlotte Field Unit Lease in Atascosa County, Texas. The Lease contained 31 wells, with the oldest wells drilled sometime in the 1950s. The Lease contained both active and inactive wells. Rule 14 of the Texas Railroad Commission requires that “dry or inactive…
In an earlier blog post, we discussed the Texas fracing case that was headed to the Texas Supreme Court for further review. On April 24, 2015, the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion in In Re Steven Lipsky, and determined that the Texas Citizens Participation Act does not require that…
The Texas Supreme Court recently granted a petition for review in the case of Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas LLC v. Texas Rice Land Partners. The review will focus on how the courts are to apply a test created by the Texas Supreme Court concerning when an entity may identify itself as…
Up until recently, to the frustration of the IRS, the cost basis for mineral interests and other assets for estate tax purposes did not have to be the same as the basis used for income tax purposes. In other words, the executor of an estate could use a lower value…