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Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog

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Texas Supreme Court Again Reverses Jury Verdict Favoring Royalty Owners

The Texas Supreme Court has once again overturned a jury verdict in favor of royalty owners, finding “no evidence” to support the jury’s finding. The court’s opinion in the case, BP America Production Company, Atlantic Richfield Company and Vastar Resources, Inc. v. Stanley G. Marshall, Jr., et al., No. 09-0399,…

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Duke University Researchers Find Correlation Between Marcellus Shale Drilling and Methane-Contaminated Drinking Water

Researchers at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University have written an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled “Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing,” which finds “systematic evidence for methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas…

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Hydraulic Fracturing Controversy Makes Discover Magazine

The April issue of Discover, published by Kalmbach Publishing Co., contains an article on the potential environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing in gas shales, “Fracking Nation,” by Linda Marsa. Much of the article simply repeats allegations being made by environmental groups and landowners of alleged groundwater contamination by shale wells.…

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News Around the Oil Patch

Items of interest recently in the news: On March 25, the Texas Railroad Commission adopted its examiners’ recommended decision finding that Range Resources was not responsible for water-well contamination in Parker County, Texas.  (For my previous posts on this controversy, go here and here.)  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which had…

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Texas Supreme Court Rules Against Citizens Complaining of Injection Well

The Texas Supreme Court has reversed a decision of the Austin Court of Appeals holding that the Texas Railroad Commission must consider traffic issues in deciding whether to issue a permit for an injection well to Pioneer Exploration, Ltd. in Wise County. In its decision, the Court held that, in…

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More About Hydraulic Fracturing in the News

The EPA has issued its draft plan to study the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water in the U.S. Two state regulatory authorities have absolved frac’ed wells from responsibility for contaminating drinking water in Colorado and Texas. Maryland’s top einvornmental regulator urged lawmakers to impose a two-year moratorium on…

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Class Action to Force Companies to Reimburse Royalty Owners for Severance Tax Refunds – Coll v. Abaco

Recently some of my clients have received notices of class action settlements in Coll v. Abaco Operating, LLC, et al., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, C.A. No. 2:08-CV-345 TJW. The case reveals a little-known aspect of royalty payments: many companies never reimburse…

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Range Resources RRC Closing Statement In Parker County Water Well Contamination Investigation

Here is the closing statement of Range Resources filed with the Texas Railroad Commission after its hearing on complaints that Range’s Barnett Shale wells in Parker County have contaminated groundwater.  It provides a good summary of the events to date and the evidence produced at the hearing.  Range Production Company…

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Hydraulic Fracturing Makes the Oscars

Josh Fox’s movie Gasland has been nominated for an academy award for best documentary. Gasland, widely criticized by the oil and gas industry, alleges that hydraulic fracturing is the cause of contamination of underground water resources across the country. (See my previous post about controversy surrounding the movie here.) The nomination,…

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