Today the Supreme court accepted the petition for review in Boerschig v. Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, No. 24-0213, a case in which the trial court granted an easement by estoppel based on a jury verdict. In 2002 Boerschig purchased the 6,397-acre U-Bar Ranch. At the time there was a 1.6…
Today the Texas Supreme Court denied PPC’s petition for review in PPC Energy v. Basic Energy Services, No. 25-0061. I wrote about the opinion of the El Paso Court of Appeals, which reversed and remanded a trial court judgment of $13 million against Basic after jury trial . Basic operates…
Today the Texas Supreme Court agreed to decide another dispute over whether a conveyance is of a fixed or floating royalty. No. 23-0671, Clifton v. Johnson. The El Paso Court of Appeals held that the instrument in question conveyed a floating royalty – a fraction of the royalty. 2023 WL…
ExxonMobil Pipeline owned a 1944 pipeline easement crossing a 126.7-acre tract. Its predecessor Humble Pipeline constructed an 11-mile pipeline crossing the tract. In 2000 ExxonMobil sold the pipeline to Salter Creek Resources. The assignment provided that “This Agreement may not be assigned, in whole or in part, without the prior…
Suppose Company A obtains an oil and gas lease on Blackacre from the owner of a 1/6 mineral interest in Blackacre, and Company B obtains and oil and gas lease from the owner of the other 5/6 mineral interest. That makes Company A and Company B co-tenants leasehold mineral estate.…
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…
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…
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…
Our firm represented the Opielas in two cases involving a Magnolia horizontal well in Karnes County: a suit against Magnolia in Karnes County, and a suit against the Texas Railroad Commission in Travis County. In both cases the Opielas contended that Magnolia had no right to drill a horizontal well…