Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog

Published on: October 27, 2014

Chesapeake v. Hyder

Chesapeake has asked the Texas Supreme Court to hear its appeal of Chesapeake v. Hyder, decided by the San Antonio Court of Appeals in March of this year. The Supreme Court has asked the parties to file briefs on the merits, and Chesapeake filed its brief last week. Although the Court has not yet agreed to hear the case, its request for briefs is an indication that the Court may do so.

I wrote about the Hyder case when it was decided last March. Since then, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has decided two other Chesapeake cases, Chesapeake v. Potts and Chesapeake v. Warren, ruling in Chesapeake’s favor in both cases. All three cases involve deduction of post-production costs from royalties. Multiple cases have been filed against Chesapeake challenging its post-production-costs deductions, because of its aggressive method of calculating those costs. In all three cases, Chesapeake relies heavily on a Texas Supreme Court case decided in 1996, Heritage Resources v. NationsBank. The Texas Supreme Court has not discussed its opinion in Heritage since it was decided. Hyder may be its opportunity to do so.

The oil and gas lease in Hyder provides that “the royalty reserved herein by Lessors shall be free and clear of all production and post-production costs and expenses.” It also states that “Lessors and Lessee agree that the holding in the case of Heritage Resources, Inc. v. Nationsbank, 939 S.W.2d 118 (Tex. 1996) shall have no application to the terms and provision of this Lease.” The Court of Appeals held that the lease prohibited Chesapeake from deducting transportation costs.

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Published on: October 20, 2014

Steadfast v. Bradshaw – Supreme Court and NPRI’s

By John McFarland

Last week the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Steadfast Financial v. Bradshaw, No. 13-0199. The case presents the court with another opportunity to grapple with an issue that Texas courts have struggled with since the court first addressed it in 1937 – what duty does the owner of the mineral estate owe to a non-participating royalty owner?

The term “non-participating royalty owner” is the name commonly given to a royalty interest in minerals created by a grant or reservation in a deed. “Non-participating” is really redundant; it means that the holder of the royalty estate has no right to lease the mineral estate or to receive any bonus for a lease. In fact, that is true of all royalty interests. A better name for this type of royalty interest might be “fee royalty interest,” to distinguish it from a royalty interest reserved by the mineral owner in an oil and gas lease.

The owner of a fee royalty interest, having no right to lease or to drill wells, is dependent on the owner of the mineral estate out of which his/her royalty interest must be paid; the royalty interest has no value unless the mineral interest is leased and wells are drilled. In recognition of this fact, court decisions have imposed a duty on the mineral owner to protect the royalty owner’s interest. How this duty is defined, and in what situations the duty is imposed, have been issues Texas courts have struggled with for many years. The cases that have addressed this issue over the years show how the common law develops — very slowly, and with varied results for the litigants involved.

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Published on: October 9, 2014

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Appeal of Trail Enterprises v. City of Houston

By John McFarland

Trail Enterprises’ efforts to collect an inverse condemnation judgment against the City of Houston have finally come to an end. The US Supreme Court has refused to hear its case. Trail Enterprises’ story is instructive to parties who may be thinking of challenging cities’ decisions to ban drilling within their boundaries.

The dispute has a long history. Lake Houston is a major source of drinking water for the City of Houston. In 1967, the City passed an ordinance restricting the drilling of new oil and gas wells in a “control area” around the lake. That restriction has remained in place except for an eleven-month gap in 1996-97, when the lake was annexed into the City and the City passed a new ordinance protecting the lake.

In 1995, Trail Enterprises, an owner of mineral interests in the restricted area around the lake, sued the City, claiming that the 1967 ordinance restriction amounted to a “taking” of the mineral interests in violation of the US Constitution. The trial court dismissed that suit, and the Houston Court of appeals affirmed. Trail Enters., Inc. v. City of Houston, 957 S.W.2d 625 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1997, writ denied). In 1999, Trail sued again, this time arguing that the City’s 1997 ordinance resulted in a taking of its property. The trial court held that the ordinance did not constitute a taking. This time the Houston Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case for a trial. Trail Enters., Inc. v. City of Houston, 2002 WL 389448 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] Mar. 14, 2002, no pet.). But the parties decided to dismiss that case.

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Published on: October 1, 2014

New UT Study on Water Use in Oil and Gas Production

By John McFarland

A new study published by The University of Texas’ Bureau of Economic Geology compares the amount of water used in producing oil from shale plays to the water used in producing oil from conventional reservoirs. The study concludes that water use for conventional and unconventional oil production is about the same. “Comparison of Water Use for Hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Oil and Gas Production versus Conventional Oil.“

The study looked at water use in the Bakken and Eagle Ford plays. The ratio of water used to oil produced ranged from 0.2 to 0.4 gallons of water for each gallon of oil produced over the lifetime of a well in both plays – or 0.03 to 0.06 gallons of water per million British thermal units of energy from the oil produced. In comparison, U.S. conventional production uses from 0.1 to 5 gallons of water for each gallon of oil produced.

The study’s conclusion: “the U.S. is using more water because HF [hydraulic fracturing] has expanded oil production, not because HF is using more water per unit of oil production.”

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Published on: September 29, 2014

Texas’ New Seismologist

By John McFarland

Michael Brick has written an excellent article in the Houston Chronicle about the Texas Railroad Commission’s new seismologist, David Craig Pearson. The article, “Vexed by Earthquakes, Texas Calls In a Scientist,” relates the events leading up to his hiring, his background, and the RRC’s initial foray into addressing the issue by proposing new rules on injection well operators.

Dr. Pearson grew up in McCamey, worked in the oil fields, studied at SMU, and worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico for 13 years. He left in 2006, returning to West Texas and ranching. He inherited some mineral rights in Upton County. When the RRC advertised for a seismologist, he applied and was hired.

So far, Dr. Pearson has published no conclusions, but the RRC has been praised for its new proposed rules. Pearson testified in August before the House Energy Resources Subcommittee on Seismic Activity that he wants to wait for reports from SMU’s study of seismic and injection activity around the town of Azle, in the Barnett Shale, before drawing any conclusions.

Published on: September 23, 2014

EPA Praises RRC

By John McFarland

In a letter to the Texas Railroad Commission commenting on the RRC’s proposed rules on curbing earthquakes caused by high-pressure injection of waste fluids, the Environmental Protection Agency “applauded the RRC’s efforts to ensure it has sufficient regulatory authority to respond to any event of the type where concerns may arise.” Maybe the agencies will kiss and make up? Not likely. But the EPA agrees with proposed rules published by the RRC that would require applicants for disposal well permits to submit information about the area’s risk for earthquakes as part of their application. The rules also strengthen the RRC’s authority to limit or halt injection from existing wells where earthquake events occur.

Initially the RRC was slow to respond to complaints about earthquakes. At one point, citizens from the town of Azle, particularly affected by earthquakes, staged a protest before the RRC at which Azle citizens serenaded the commission with their own composition based on Elvis Presley’s All Shook Up. The RRC has now hired its own seismologist, and although Commissioners are cautious about connecting earthquakes to oil and gas activity, the proposed rules are a step in the right direction.

Texas now has more than 3,600 active commercial injection wells; it granted 668 permits last year alone. Earthquakes strong enough to damage homes have occurred in the Barnett Shale region. Similar problems have occurred in Oklahoma and other regions.

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Published on: September 16, 2014

Gas Contamination of Groundwater Traced to Faulty Casing

By John McFarland

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examining eight clusters of contaminated water wells in Pennsylvania and Texas, found that the wells’ contamination was either from naturally occurring gas deposits — i.e., the gas is naturally occurring within the aquifer — or from poor casing and cementing of nearby gas wells. The study concluded that the hydraulic fracturing of the wells was not a cause of groundwater contamination. The study was led by a researcher at The Ohio State University and included researchers at Duke, Harvard, Dartmouth and the University of Rochester. The researchers were able to “fingerprint” the gas by measuring the amount of “noble” gases such as helium included with the natural gas. The researchers were able to distinguish between the fingerprints of naturally occurring methane in the aquifers and gas from the Barnett and Marcellus Shale formations. Ohio State’s press release about the study can be viewed here.

I have written previously about the ongoing battle between Range Resources and the Lipskys over the Lipskys’ claims that Range’s wells contaminated their groundwater. A facet of that battle is pending in the Texas Supreme Court. This new study will add fire to the debate.

Published on: September 10, 2014

An Alternative View of the Shale Boom

By John McFarland

There are always nay-sayers who predict that the current boom, whatever it may be, will soon be a bust. Recently, however, some pretty prominent voices have cautioned that all of the rosy predictions about the future of the shale boom, US energy independence, and the continued growth of US oil and gas production are false – a bubble soon to burst.

One of those is J. David Hughes, a geoscientist with the Post-Carbon Institute. He spent 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada, and coordinated an assessment of Canada’s unconventional natural gas potential. He has authored “Drill, Baby, Drill,” published last year by the Post Carbon Institute and the Energy Policy Forum. It is a pretty comprehensive review of the long-term viability of the shale plays. Some excerpts:

“World energy consumption has more than doubled since the energy crises of the 1970s, and more than 80 percent of this is provided by fossil fuels. In the next 24 years world consumption is forecast to grow by a further 44 percent–and U.S. consumption a further seven percent–with fossil fuels continuing to provide around 80 percent of total demand.”

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Published on: September 3, 2014

Potts v. Chesapeake

By John McFarland

Last month I wrote about two cases recently decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in which Chesapeake defeated royalty owners’ efforts to prevent it from reducing their royalties by deducting post-production costs. One of those cases is Potts v. Chesapeake. The plaintiffs in that case have asked the Court of Appeals to reconsider its appeal “en banc,” meaning that it has asked the other judges on the court to grant its petition for rehearing and reconsider the decision of the three-judge panel who decided the case. Plaintiffs’ Petition for Rehearing may be viewed here: Potts Petition for Rehearing En Banc.pdf

Yesterday, our firm filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Potts case, on behalf of the Texas Land and Mineral Owners Association and the National Association of Royalty Owners – Texas, asking the Court to grant the plaintiff’s motion for rehearing and either consider the case en banc or refer the question to the Texas Supreme Court for its consideration. A copy of our brief may be viewed here: Potts v. CHK Amicus Brief.pdf

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, suit has been filed against Chesapeake claiming that its conduct in selling gas to its affiliate company at prices well below market, and then selling its affiliate company for a substantial profit, constituted fraud on its royalty owners in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. That petition can be viewed here: Suessenbach v. Chesapeake.pdf

Published on: August 26, 2014

Flaring in the Eagle Ford

By John McFarland

With increasing frequency, my landowner clients have complained about gas flaring, especially in the Eagle Ford Shale. Landowners are beginning to insist that their leases require royalty payments on flared gas. Landowners also complain of the odors and noise from gas flares.

The San Antonio Express News has recently published a four-part series, Up in Flames, on flaring in the Eagle Ford, after a year-long investigation. Among its findings:

Since 2009, flaring and venting of natural gas in Texas has surged by 400 percent to 33 billion cubic feet in 2012. Nearly 2/3 of the gas flared in 2012 came from the Eagle Ford.

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