Like breaking into CIA headquarters, sneaking into the Vatican, or hanging off the side of the Burj Khalifa, sometimes getting the deal done seems impossible. The key to any successful mission is planning for disastrous...more
8/8/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Article III ,
Asset Purchase Agreements ,
Breach of Contract ,
Breach of Duty ,
Contract Terms ,
Energy Sector ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Partnerships ,
Profits Interests ,
Standing
In this title action the title issues didn’t matter. The lesson is simple: The exclusive procedure to resolve competing claims to real property in Texas is a statutory trespass-to-try-title suit under Property Code Chapter...more
Cardoso-Gonzales v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. addressed the all-important indemnity and insurance provisions in Master Service Agreements in light of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity...more
Louisiana practitioners and their clients tend to know this particular point of Louisiana law, but it could surprise out-of-staters (known in their native habitat as “Texans”), so it’s worth a reminder...more
7/17/2018
/ Breach of Contract ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Terms ,
Damages ,
Energy Sector ,
Gas Royalties ,
Liability ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Leases ,
Negligence ,
Oil & Gas ,
Statutory Requirements
Coke or Pepsi? Elvis or the Beatles? Left Twix or Right Twix? Fixed or floating royalty? Among the great debates of recent decades, few have proven quite as frustrating as the great “Fixed v. Floating” royalty debate in Texas...more
The Louisiana Supreme Court’s reversal of lower courts in Gloria’s Ranch, L.L.C. v. Tauren Expl., Inc. eliminates a major source of anguish for Louisiana energy lenders and their borrowers. You might recall our report on the...more
You’ve secured the right leases. You’ve drilled nice wells in the right locations. Now, will you pay the right royalty owners? Follow Devon Energy Production Company, L.P. v. Apache Corporation, to be sure that you do....more
It is often a worthy strategy for the lessee to be aggressive with counterclaims against the lessor. Lessees should think twice about that strategy if it means complaining about the lessor’s public statements. In Lona Hills...more
Briggs v. Southwestern Energy is another way to say “chaos” in Pennsylvania. The Superior Court ruled that fracking may constitute a trespass when subsurface frac-fluid and proppants cross boundary lines and extend into the...more
In XTO Energy v. EOG Resources, a title dispute over the mineral estate in 1,653 acres in Atascosa and McMullen counties, Texas, the loser tried both, to no avail....more
4/24/2018
/ Contract Terms ,
Deed of Trust ,
Energy Sector ,
Foreclosure ,
Liens ,
Mineral Extraction ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
Real Estate Market ,
Transfer of Interest
What could go wrong when the well recovers two times its costs in nine months? Plenty, as we see in Dimock v. Sutherland Energy....more
Recall the Battle of the Bastards: The heroic Lady Sansa and the duplicitous Lord Baelish gallop over the hill to save the foolish Jon Snow from the heinous Ramsey Bolton. In similar fashion, but without the malnourished...more
4/9/2018
/ Ambiguous ,
Breach of Contract ,
ConocoPhillips ,
Contract Interpretation ,
Contract Terms ,
Energy Sector ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
Rule Against Perpetuities ,
TX Supreme Court
The ruling from the Supreme Court of Texas in JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., et al v. Orca Assets, G.P., L.L.C. was foreseeable. Experienced energy professionals who pass on the opportunity to examine title for themselves are...more
We are reminded in Claybar v. Samson Exploration that a court will (if it’s doing its job) enforce an agreement according to what it actually says, not by that which one party or the other would have liked it to say or...more
There are specific requirements for proving that an oil and gas lease has survived past its primary term. Fail to hit them all when the lease is challenged at the courthouse, wand disappointment will be order of the day....more
Let’s get right to the takeaway: Despite the humble hourly rate operators are typically willing to fork over for title examination, the job isn’t easy and you’d better put your trust in a practitioner with expertise,...more
Are you “woke”* vis-vis-vis global warming and the coming-any-day-now destruction of the coral reefs, the arctic ice pack, polar bears, coastlines, the flora, the fauna, you, me, and the entire natural world as we know it? Me...more
Proving once again that gratitude is the rarest of human emotions, a contract between a landman and his client was deemed unenforceable, leaving the landman with nothing, even though he actually secured oil and gas leases for...more
Issues surrounding the legality of allocation wells in Texas have been percolating for some time, and lately we’ve heard of potential litigation. ...more
Chauvin v. Shell Oil Company et al is the potful of legal unpleasantness that can be stirred up by landmen trying to buy easements, leases, and the like.
A number of plaintiffs – descendants of grantors of two parcels of...more
Email is the way we communicate these days. Whether emails create a contract is important if you’re thinking nothing short of a dead tree could ever bind anybody or, to the contrary, your goal is to establish an enforceable...more
Let’s take a look at what President Trump has done for the oil industry in his first year (This is not about decorum, dossiers, tweets, or Oprah’s inauguration.) As in the past I refer to sources whose opinions and insights...more
1/16/2018
/ Bureau of Land Management ,
Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Power Plan ,
Coal Industry ,
Deregulation ,
Energy Sector ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Violations ,
Fracking Bans ,
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) ,
Offshore Drilling ,
Oil & Gas ,
Pollution Control ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Settlement ,
Trump Administration ,
Well Drilling
Anyone seeking stability in the law governing E&P activities in Louisiana will view the lower court decision as a grave error that must be corrected. Virtually every mortgage provides safeguards to protect collateral and...more
Once again we look back at the continuing cavalcade of crooks, criminals, miscreants and, to put it kindly, morons the less intellectually gifted, who met justice face-to-face in 2017. This year’s class includes a preacher,...more
1/2/2018
/ Criminal Conspiracy ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Energy Sector ,
Fraud ,
Insider Trading ,
Investment Fraud ,
Mail Fraud ,
Mexico ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Leases ,
Money Laundering ,
Nigeria ,
Oil & Gas ,
Ponzi Scheme ,
Power Plants ,
Renewable Energy ,
Scams ,
Securities Fraud ,
Tax Credits ,
Tax Fraud ,
Well Drilling ,
Wire Fraud
The Texas Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in three intriguing oil and gas cases. Here’s what you need to know about two of them (We’ll address the third case soon)....more
12/19/2017
/ Appeals ,
ConocoPhillips ,
Contract Interpretation ,
Contract Terms ,
Energy Sector ,
Land Titles ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Oil & Gas ,
Rule Against Perpetuities ,
TX Supreme Court