I recently ran across a publication containing two stories by O. Henry, purchased at the Capitol Visitors Center in Austin. The stories center on the Texas General Land Office, where O. Henry (then William Sydney Porter) worked as a draftsman between 1887 and 1891. The stories led me down a…
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…
The EPA has issued notice that it proposes to approve Texas’ application for authority to issue permits for Class VI injection wells (wells to be used for CO2 sequestration projects). The Trump administration had previously instructed EPA to accelerate consideration of states’ applications for primacy for Class VI wells. A…
There are at least 150,000 unplugged inactive oil and gas wells in Texas, and the number is growing. Of these, almost 9,000 are “orphan wells,” having no active operator because the owner has gone out of business or gone bankrupt. Senate Bill 1150, passed by the Legislature, is the Legislature’s…
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…
I ran across a fascinating opinion from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that provides a window into Wyoming history. Iron Bar Holdings v. Cape, No. 23-8043, decided March 18. The facts are these: Iron Bar Holdings owns a ranch in southwest Wyoming covering 50 square miles. But within its…
You can register here. Seminar topics include: Legislative Update Orphan Wells Land Condemnation Case Law Update Nuts and Bolts of Oil and Gas Leasing Trusts and Estates Planning Groundwater Issues
The Delaware Mountain Group is a group of formations including the Bell Canyon, Cherry Canyon and Brushy Canyon formations, deposits in ancient canyons filled in over the ages, and are productive of oil and gas. These formations lie above parts of the Wolfcamp formation in the Permian Basin. Disposal of…
The podcast The Disconnect has begun Season Three, about the role of gas producers and pipelines in the Big Freeze of 2022., This is the third of a series by Mose Buschele, energy and environmental reporter at KUT and NPR. The first two episodes are out, and you can listen…
I have been reading a biography of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, by John M. Barry: Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul – Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. Williams was born in 1603 and as a young man became a friend and assistant…