Search Results for: texas supreme court

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The Supreme Court has handed down its opinion in Cactus Water Services, LLC v. COG Operating, LLC, a dispute over ownership of produced water. Its holding: COG, the operator, owns the produced water. Between 2005 and 2014, the Colliers granted leases covering 37,000 acres of land in Reeves County to COG. The leases granted lease […]

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In Myers-Woodward v. Underground Services Markham, No. 22-0878, the Texas Supreme Court removed any doubt that pore space is owned by the owner of the surface estate, not the mineral estate. Myers Woodward owns the surface estate of 160 acres in Matagorda County. It also owns a 1/8th royalty on oil, gas and other minerals […]

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Today the Texas Supreme Court decided Carl v. Hilcorp Energy Co, No. 24-0036. Its opinion addresses certified questions submitted to it by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals concerning a class action suit pending in that court. The Carls’ lease provided for payment of gas royalty based on its “market value at the well.” […]

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In 2014 the City of Denton banned drilling of wells within its city limits. In response the Texas Legislature quickly passed HB 40, giving the Texas Railroad Commission exclusive jurisdiction to issue drilling permits within municipalities and allowing cities to regulate oil and gas activity only if their ordinances relate to “aboveground activity .. at […]

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Today the Texas Supreme Court agreed to hear Ammonite Oil & Gas Corp. v. Railroad Commission of Texas and EOG Resources, an appeal from the Commission’s denial of sixteen applications by Ammonite under the Mineral Interest Pooling Act. I wrote about this case when it was decided against Ammonite by the Austin Court of Appeals. […]

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Last week the Texas Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Nettye Engler Energy, LP v. Bluestone Natural Resources II, LLC, No. 20-0639, affirming the lower court’s ruling that Engler’s royalty interest bears its share of gas gathering and processing costs. Engler owns a royalty interest in a section of land in Tarrant County on […]

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The Texas Supreme Court agreed to decide Hlavinka v. HSC Pipeline, about which I have written before. The Court’s summary of the issues: The primary issues in this case are whether (1) Texas law grants eminent domain authority to a pipeline owner shipping polymer grade propylene; (2) a pipeline shipping a product from the pipeline […]

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Texas courts are very reluctant to hold that oil and gas lease provisions are ambiguous. The same holds true for deeds and wills. These instruments affect title to land, and if an instrument is ambiguous it inserts uncertainty into land titles and results in litigation over the parties’ intent using extrinsic evidence, usually before a […]

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The Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments in December in Concho Resources v. Ellison, No. 19-0233, a fight over ownership of the minerals in 154 acres in Irion County. (The population of Irion county was 1,599 in 2010. Its county seat is Mertzon. The county was once the hideout of outlaw Tom Ketchum. Irion County […]

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Yesterday the Texas Supreme Court denied a petition in one case and granted a petition in the other, both dealing with provisions in oil and gas leases. The Court denied Chesapeake’s petition in Chesapeake v. Bell, construing an express drainage offset clause in Bell’s lease. The San Antonio Court of Appeals’ decision in favor of […]

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