News & Analysis as of

Mineral Exploration Oil & Gas Mineral Leases

Holland & Knight LLP

Interior Department Streamlines Oil and Gas Leasing Process on Public Lands

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In a significant policy shift, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) policy update designed to expedite the oil and gas leasing process on public lands. Through a newly issued...more

McGinnis Lochridge

Affirmative Defenses Are Insufficient to Rebut the Van Dyke Presumption

McGinnis Lochridge on

Under Van Dyke, deeds with double-fraction royalty reservations referencing “1/8” are presumed to reserve a floating royalty interest unless clearly contradicted. Defenses like waiver, ratification, and limitations cannot...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Balancing Act: Lithium Extraction and a New Era of Legal Issues

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As the world moves toward cleaner energy, lithium has become crucial, powering electric vehicles and renewable-energy storage systems. With lithium demand set to increase more than 40-fold by 2040, the race to extract this...more

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.

Landowners Should Ensure that Solar Farm Payments Retain Their Value Over Time

Houston Harbaugh, P.C. on

Leases for solar energy facilities offer property owners the potential for a predictable, long-term revenue stream. But, because of the potential decades-long duration of a lease for solar energy facilities, things like...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Interior Department Finalizes Rule to Limit Oil and Gas, Mineral Development in Alaska

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The U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) released a final rule that will protect millions of acres of Alaskan wildness from the development of oil, gas and minerals. Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which...more

Gray Reed

Mineral Lessee’s H2S Damage Claim Rejected

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Landowner and mineral owner (that includes you, lessee): Under ETC Texas Pipeline, Ltd. v. Ageron Energy, LLC, your right to sue for damages for tort or trespass could pass into history before you even know you have a claim....more

Gray Reed

Is a Merger a “Transfer of Leases”?

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In Texas, no. Read on to learn why. In Nortex Minerals LP v. Blackbeard Operating LLC et al, the question was the meaning of this limited assignment provision in the “Alliance Leases”, oil and gas leases covering 27,000 acres...more

Gray Reed

Lessee Can’t Satisfy Texas Supreme Court’s Force Majeure Requirements

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Imagine these facts in a force majeure dispute (as presented in Point Energy Partners Permian LLC et al. v. MRC Permian Company). Lessee (MRC) invokes the force majeure provision of an oil and gas lease, asserting that...more

Gray Reed

City of Dallas Owes $33+ Million for Drilling Permit Denials

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If you have ever wondered how many ways a cocktail of stupidity*, treachery and feckless government can inflict financial harm on the undeserving, including the citizens the feckless government leaders are supposed to serve,...more

Gray Reed

Stray Cows and Oilfield Operations Do Not Play Well Together

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Foote and Cypert v. Texcel Exploration and Decker determined that cattle loitering uninvited around a well and tank battery are trespassers, not licensees. How it happened - Foote arranged with Yates to graze 650 head...more

Gray Reed

Fair and Reasonable Offer Required Before Force-Pooling in Texas

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Ammonite Oil and Gas Corporation v. Railroad Commission of Texas illustrates the difficulties faced by lessees attempting to force-pool a tract under the Mineral Interest Pooling Act.  In this case, the applicant Ammonite...more

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.

Texas Appellate Court Rules that Lease Terminated Due to Twelve Months of Non-Production

Houston Harbaugh, P.C. on

The modern producing gas well is a sophisticated and complex piece of equipment. The basic well head itself consists of several meters, valves and other components, each of which is under constant stress and pressure. ...more

Gray Reed

What are “Drilling Operations”?

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As Humpty Dumpty would have said to Alice if he were Justice Dumpty of the Texas Supreme Court, the term means whatever the parties to an oil and gas lease say it means, neither more nor less. In Sundown Energy LP, et al. v....more

Gray Reed

Texas Supreme Court Weighs in on Post-Production Costs

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The Supreme Court of Texas has ruled that oil and gas leases under consideration in BlueStone Natural Resources II, LLC v. Walker Murray Randle, et al. did not permit deduction of postproduction costs from sales proceeds...more

Gray Reed

Louisiana Servitude Extended by Good Faith Drilling

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The question in Cannisnia Plantation, LLC v. Cecil Blount Farms, LLC was whether a well was drilled in good faith in order to interrupt the running of prescription on a Louisiana mineral servitude....more

Hogan Lovells

Suspensions of federal and Indian oil and gas leases

Hogan Lovells on

With storage pressure and pandemic-reduced demand driving oil prices into freefall, lessees of federal and Indian lands may consider turning to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) procedures...more

Gray Reed

Oil Field Services Gets Lump of Coal From Santa

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Our sympathies go out to those in the oilfield services industry in Texas—it looks like you got a lump of coal. In Mesa Southern CWS Acquisition v. Deep Energy Exploration Partners the Houston Court of Appeals upended the...more

Gray Reed

Wave Goodbye To Unenforcable Mineral Lien Waivers: The Houston Court Of Appeals Weighs In With Mesa V. Deep Energy

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The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston recently issued an opinion that will have profound impacts on mineral liens and contractual provisions purporting to waive mineral liens. The question of whether or not a pre-work...more

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental...

Does The Mineral Owner’s Dominance Foreclose Environmental Advocacy by the Surface Owner?

Since the beginning of recorded mineral law, the owner of the mineral interests has enjoyed an elevated status in its relationship with the surface owner, resulting in the universally accepted notion that the mineral estate...more

Gray Reed

Broad Settlement Discharges Mineral Liens

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When you prepare, review and/or sign settlement agreements you sometimes pay less attention than you should to the details of those “standard” releases! Acme Energy Services, d/b/a Big Dog Drilling v. Staley et al. says,...more

Gray Reed

A Lesson in Property Stipulations

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Marsha Ellison v. Three Rivers Acquisition, LLC, et al. reminds us what is required for an instrument to be a conveyance and what is required for a stipulation to be effective....more

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC

Ohio Governor Signs Law Exempting Landmen from Licensing Requirement

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC on

On December 19, 2018, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed Ohio Senate Bill No. 263, which amended O.R.C. 4735.01 to exempt oil and gas land professionals (landmen) from the real-estate licensing requirement made necessary by the...more

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC

Ohio Supreme Court Upholds Land Professional Licensing Requirement

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On September 25, 2018, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued its opinion which held that oil and gas land professionals must be licensed as real estate brokers in Ohio if they are engaged in obtaining oil and gas leases for other...more

Bricker Graydon LLP

Ohio law requires oil and gas land professionals to hold broker’s license to be compensated

Bricker Graydon LLP on

On September 25, 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court issued its decision in Thomas Dundics v. Eric Petroleum, Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-3826, holding that the plain language of Ohio Revised Code 4735.01 does not exclude oil and gas...more

Gray Reed

Texas Accomodation Doctrine Claim Repudiated

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Harrison v. Rosetta Resources Operating LP presents a wacky? time-wasting? clever? unsuccessful attempt to expand reinvent the Texas accomodation doctrine....more

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