Our firm is hosting our 5th annual seminar for Texas land and mineral owners on topics of interest in oil and gas law. We have a great lineup of speakers, including Idalia Romanos on royalty audits, Peter Huddleston on current shale development activity in Texas, Mary Keeney providing a case…
Texas Land & Mineral Owners Association is having its Statewide Members Meeting on October 11 in San Antonio. Information here. It is a good organization and a good meeting. Join up and attend.
The Texas Railroad Commission has issued its Monitoring and Enforcement Plan for fiscal year 2019. The plan was required by a 2017 law that directs the RRC to develop an annual plan to assess its use of resources to ensure public safety and minimize damage to the environment. It requires…
In Ridge Natural Resources v. Double Eagle Royalty, recently decided by the El Paso Court of Appeals, James and Jolinda McDaniel signed a “Royalty Lease” to Ridge, reading as follows: Oil and Gas Royalty Lease THIS LEASE AGREEMENT is made as of the 10th day of October, 2016 between [the…
The Senate hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court have brought public attention to the role the Supreme Court, and courts in general, play in our trilateral system of government – a role that the public usually does not see in headlines other than when the Supreme…
A recent case from the Ohio Court of Appeals, Fifth Appellate District, raises some interesting questions about forced pooling. The case, American Energy – Utica, LLC v. Fuller, Case No. 17 CA 000028, involves an oil and gas lease covering 40 acres in Guernsey County, Ohio, dated in 1981. The…
This month the Texas Supreme Court refused to hear the case of Lindemann Properties, Ltd. v. Campbell, 524 S.W.3d 873 (Tex.App.-Ft. Worth 2017). Although the case involves an easement for a radio transmission tower, it provides some lessons for negotiating easements for pipelines. In 1977 Smith granted to Campbell an…
A recent opinion from the El Paso Court of Appeals, Harrison v. Rosetta Resources, illustrates how important groundwater has become in oil and gas development in the Permian Basin. Harrison signed a lease on Relinquishment Act land, as agent for the State. The lease provided that the Lessee has the…
Osler McCarthy, the Staff Attorney for Public Information at the Texas Supreme Court, sends out an email to subscribers each time the Court issues opinions or orders. The email summarizes the facts and opinions of cases decided by the Court. It also includes a section called “Returning to Yesteryear” in…
Jarndyce v. Jarndyce is a fictional court case in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, an interminable suit over a large inheritance. The case itself is a principal character in the book. Dickens wrote in Bleak House: Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, over the course of…