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…
There has been a new development in Texas law regarding notary seals and this development affects any document in Texas that has to be notarized. This includes deeds, wills, trusts, oil and gas leases and many other kinds of documents. In fact, any document that must be filed in the…
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…
The Texas Supreme Court recently addressed how a bequest in a will of a double fractional oil and gas interest should be interpreted in Hysaw v. Bretton et al in an opinion entered on January 29, 2016. A double fraction occurs when an instrument expresses a royalty interest as the…
Occasionally, a Texas landowner will own a piece of property that lacks access, or sufficient access, to a public road. Usually, the first thing the landowner should do is to negotiate with an adjoining landowner to see if the adjoining landowner will agree to an easement of some kind. However,…
A rather depressing milestone was announced this week. The number of oil well drilling rigs in the United States has reached its lowest count since records began to be kept in the 1940s. Drilling rig counts have been by Baker Hughes, Inc. for many decades and are announced weekly. The…
Over the years I have negotiated many leases for mineral owners in the Texas Permian basin and the Eagle Ford Shale. Historically, production in these two areas has set records. These two shale plays, together with the Bakken, the Haynesville, the Marcellus, the Niobrara and the Utica represent 95% of…
Brent crude oil closed below $30 on Friday, January 15, 2016. This is the first time Brent crude has traded below $30 in over twelve years. Oil prices have plunged recently despite reports of Mideast instability, that terrorist groups have attacked storage facilities in two major Libyan ports and the…
The National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) and the American Land Title Association (ALTA) recently issued new minimum standards for surveys that you can access here. The NSPS and ALTA each officially adopted these new standards in 2015, and they become effective on February 23, 2016. Some notable changes include:…
The Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act was amended recently, with changes going into effect on February 17, 2016. Previously, when a foreign person or entity sold real property in the United States, the buyer was required to withhold 10% of the gross sales price. Beginning February 17, 2016,…