Prior to the Texas Legislature’s passage of House Bill 2259, an operator could leave an inactive well unplugged indefinitely, as long as the oil and gas lease on which the well is located remains in effect, by simply filing an annual form. House Bill 2259, effective September 1, 2009, imposes…
Gas prices in Texas recently dipped below $2/mmbtu. Companies are shutting in wells to avoid selling at such low prices. Nevertheless, record volumes of gas are going into storage. The chart shows the five-year monthly average of gas in storage for the last five years, and the red line shows…
Three law firms in Dallas have joined to sue oil companies who backed out of leases covering lands in Arlington, Texas last fall. The three firms — Petroff & Associates, Riddle & Williams, P.C., and Mathis & Donheiser, P.C. — have so far filed two suits on behalf of two lot…
A Delaware bankruptcy judge has ruled in the SemCrude bankruptcy that the claims of Texas producers for unpaid revenues from oil sales are subordinate to the claims of SemCrude’s bankers. As a result, the Texas producers (and perhaps their royalty owners) may lose up to $57 million. SemCrude filed for…
Items from this week: Prices: Natural gas prices continue to decline. Below is a comparison of gas NYMEX futures prices with S&P 500 for the last year: On August 14, futures for September delivery settled at $3.24/MMBtu, a 52-week low. Futures prices have declined about 65% from this time…
Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, has weighed in on the side of the O’Connors in their fight against ExxonMobil. The General Land Office has filed an amicus brief urging the Texas Supreme Court to reconsider its decision in Exxon v. Emerald; Commissioner Patterson issued a press release ( press…
I have recently been reading “The Big Rich: the Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes,” by Bryan Burrough. It has reminded me of a fascinating chapter in the history of Texas oil and gas law that arose out of the Texas oil boom in the early years…
Until fairly recently, there has been little governmental regulation of the drilling of and production of groundwater in Texas. Texas historically followed the common-law “rule of capture,” which holds that, unless the groundwater rights have been severed from the surface, the surface owner is the owner of all groundwater he/she can…
The NAT Gas Act has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, as S. 1408, sponsored by Senators Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Orrin Hatch, R-UT. The Act provides incentives for increased use of vehicles powered by natural gas. It was previously introduced in the House as H.R. 1835. The Act increases…
On April 2, Keith O. Rattie, CEO of Questar Corporation, gave a speech to students at Utah Valley University about global warming and U.S. energy policy. The parts of the speech about global warming seek to raise questions about the science behind conclusions of the global warming trend. The most…