As oil prices have declined to unprecedented lows, consumers may feel glad for lower gasoline prices at the pump. However, the piper always has to be paid, and nowhere more so than in Texas. As I discussed in a previous post, oil companies have been hit by a number of…
The Texas rule against perpetuities (the “Rule”) was something all lawyers learned about in law school, but it seemed at the time like a concept we would not run into very often in real life law practice. Unfortunately, it comes up regularly in connection with Texas oil and gas leases…
The Texas 14th Court of Appeals recently interpreted a pipeline easement and that interpretation may have application for many other pipeline easements in existence in Texas. The case is Texas Land & Cattle II, Ltd. v ExxonMobil Pipeline Company. Texas Land & Cattle (TLC) owned real property in Harris County,…
The Texas School Land Board announced new policies in response to the covid pandemic. These policies apply to Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) lands that are subject to the Texas Relinquishment Act, Texas Natural Resources Code 52.171 through 52.190. According to the General Land Office (GLO) website: “The policies delegates…
The oil and gas industry has always been cyclical. Always has been and no doubt always will be. $20 per barrel oil is not new. Just during my career, there have been three substantial downturns in oil prices prior to the one we are experiencing today. These happened in approximately…
I’d like to pass on an open letter to President Trump from Kirk Edwards, an Odessa based independent oil & gas producer. This was published March 24, 2020 in OA Online. It certainly contains some food for thought. I do not, and have never, represented an oil company. However, it…
The Texas Supreme Court decided a case recently involving an assignment of an overriding royalty interest (ORRI) in minerals located in Wheeler County, Texas. That case is Piranha Partners et al v. Joe Neuhoff et al. In 1975, Neuhoff Oil & Gas purchased an undivided two-thirds interest in a mineral…
Many Texas landowners have old electric line easements on their property with companies that are no longer in business, such as the old Texas Electric Co. AEP Texas, Inc. and/or Southwestern Electric Power Company (“SWEPCO”) now own many of these easements. These easements are often incredibly vague, especially regarding what…
The Commissioners of the Texas Railroad Commission recently voted unanimously to amend Rule 3.40, which has to do with the assignment of acreage to pooling and proration units. The current rule provides that “… acreage assigned to a well for drilling and development, or for allocation of allowable, shall not…
A well operated by Chesapeake Energy Corporation experienced a fiery blowout on Thursday, January 30, 2020. The well, the Daniel H 1 H, is located in Burleson County, Texas near Deanville. The well is in an area where Chesapeake is drilling long lateral well bores to develop Eagle Ford shale…