Royalty owner opposition to Chesapeake is heating up in Pennsylvania. Chesapeake has sent royalty owners letters saying it has overpaid them by failing to deduct post-production costs and demanding reimbursement. Post-production cost deductions are exceeding revenues on Chesapeake’s royalty checks, resulting in a “negative royalty.” The Commissioners of Bradford County,…
I ran across this video from the Austin American Statesman – a reporter asking people what is the business of the Texas Railroad Commission. Not many voters know. Once again, the Sunset Commission has recommended that the Commission’s name be changed to something like the Texas Energy Commission. Sounds like…
The environmental group Ceres has released a map showing the overlap between shale plays and water-stressed areas of the U.S. You can view it here. It is based on a study of 110,000 wells fracked over the past five years. Read Ceres’ summary of findings here. Its report is an…
In May of this year, the Provost Umphrey law firm filed a class action complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania against Talisman Energy USA, Inc. for underpayment of royalties on production from the Eagle Ford field in South Texas. Regmund v. Talisman complaint The Plaintiffs are three royalty owners who…
Apache has announced that it is sitting on as much as 75 trillion cubic feet of rich gas and 3 billion barrels of oil under 352,000 acres in southern Reeves County. It calls its prospect the “Alpine High.” The hydrocarbons are in a 4-5,000-foot thick segment encompassing 2-3,000 locations in…
The Denbury case that caused such a stir on the Texas Supreme Court’s first review of the case, is back before the Court again. In the first Denbury opinion, the Court held that a pipeline seeking to assert eminent domain authority had to make a showing that it was in…
From Texas Tribune: A major metro paper endorses a third-party statewide candidate… The Houston Chronicle has endorsed Libertarian Mark Miller in the race to replace David Porter on the three-member Texas Railroad Commission. “Our editorial board interviews scores of candidates for political office every election year, but seldom do we…
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency have ordered the shut-in of 54 disposal wells in Osage County, Oklahoma, after a magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Saturday, September 3. The wells are in an oval with a 10-mile radius around the center of the quake, a 211-mile area (click…
Last week the Texas Supreme Court agreed to hear three petitions for review of lower court opinions addressing oil and gas issues of interest to land and mineral owners. BP America Production Co. v. Laddex Ltd., No. 15-0248 BP owned a lease that was granted in 1971 and was held…
The EPA has issued a report evaluating the Texas Railroad Commission’s regulation of injection wells: EPAreviewRRC The report criticizes the RRC in three areas, discussed below. Injection wells, permitted by the RRC, are used to dispose of oilfield waste – produced water, frac water, and other fluids. These liquid wastes…