Published on:

Allocation Wells

Last Friday I spoke on a panel at the E.E. Smith Advanced Oil and Gas Institute in Houston, discussing allocation wells. The segment was in the form of a debate, actually more like an oral argument. After an introduction of the topic by Bob Goldsmith, Bryan Lauer with Scott Douglas presented the case for the legality of allocation wells, and I presented the case for their illegality. We discussed the precedential value of Browning Oil v. Luecke and Humble Oil v. West and the challenges to allocation wells in the Klotzman proceeding before the Texas Railroad Commission and in Spartan v. EOG, now pending in district court in Harris County.

I can now report that EOG and the Klotzman family have reached a settlement in the Klotzmans’ challenge of an allocation well permit on their lands. So the Railroad Commission’s authority to issue the Klotzman allocation well permit will not be decided by a District Court in Travis County.

Here is a recent article in the Texas Tech Law Review about allocation wells.

 

Contact Information