Published on:

Superior Court of Pennsylvania Disagrees with Texas Supreme Court on Whether Rule of Capture Applies to Hydraulic Fracturing

On April 2, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania issued its opinion in Briggs v. Southwestern Energy Production Co., 2018 PA Super 79, No. 1351 MDA 2017.  It held that “hydraulic fracturing may constitute an actionable trespass where subsurface fractures, fracturing fluid and proppant cross boundary lines and extend into the subsurface estate of an adjoining property for which the operator does not have a mineral lease, resulting in the extraction of natural gas from beneath the adjoining landowner’s property.” In doing so, the court rejected the reasoning of the Texas Supreme Court in Coastal Oil & Gas Corp. v. Garza Energy Trust, 268 S.W.3d 1 (Tex. 2008), which held that the rule of capture prevented any such cause of action.  The court agreed with the conclusion of a federal district court in West Virginia in Stone v. Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, No. 5:12-CV-102, 2013 WL 2097397 (N.D.W.Va. Apr. 10, 2013), which held that hydraulic fracturing can give rise to a trespass claim. The court also agreed with Justice Johnson’s dissent in Coastal v. Garza, in which he said that he “would not apply the rule [of capture] to a situation  … in which a party effectively enters another’s lease without consent, drains minerals by means of an artificially created channel or device, and then ‘captures’ the minerals on the trespasser’s lease.”

The court concluded:

… we are persuaded by the analysis in the Coastal Oil dissent and Stone, and conclude that hydraulic fracturing is distinguishable from conventional methods of oil and gas extraction. Traditionally, the rule of capture assumes that oil and gas originate in subsurface reservoirs or pools, and can migrate freely within the reservoir and across property lines, according to changes in pressure. … Unlike oil and gas originating in a common reservoir, natural gs, when trapped in a shale formation, is non-migratory in nature. … Shale gas does not merely “escape” to adjoining land absent the application of an external force.  …

Further, we are not persuaded by the Coastal Oil court’s rationale that a landowner can adequately protect his interests by drilling his own well to prevent drainage to an adjoining property.  … Hydraulic fracturing is a costly and highly specialized endeavor, and the traditional recourse to “go and do likewise” is not necessarily readily available for an average landowner. … Additionally, while we are cognizant that establishing the occurrence of a subsurface trespass [and] determining the value of natural gas drained through hydraulic fracturing will present evidentiary difficulties, … we do not believe that such difficulty, in itself, is a sufficient justification for precluding recovery. …

We additionally echo the concern raised in both the Coastal Oil dissent and Stone that precluding trespass liability based on the rule of capture would effectively allow a mineral lessee to expand its lease by locating a well near the lease’s boundary line and withdrawing natural gas from beneath the adjoining property, for which it does not have a lease. … Such an allowance would nearly eradicate a mineral lessee’s incentive to negotiate mineral leases with small property owners, as the lessee could use hydraulic fracturing to create an artificial channel beneath an adjoining property, and withdraw natural gas from beneath the neighbor’s land without paying a royalty.

A persuasive argument. Southwestern can petition the Pennsylvania Court for review of the decision.

Contact Information