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Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Liquid Natural Gas Plant/Clean Air Act: Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Addresses Challenge to Texas Commission on Environmental...

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (“Fifth Circuit”) addressed in an August 12th Decision a challenge to a Clean Air Act Prevention of Significant Deterioration (“PSD”) Permit issued by the Texas...more

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.

Creating a Chasm or Filling a Void?

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If you drive around Pennsylvania, you are likely not going to encounter a “For Sale” sign offering a cavern in the ground. But the voids, pore spaces, and cavities in the subsurface can be quite valuable now and in the...more

Gray Reed

Texas Court Splits Family Timber Land Over Heir’s Objections

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“He who comes for the inheritance is often made to pay for the funeral”.* When heirs inherit property together and can’t agree on its use, Texas courts strongly prefer dividing the land physically rather than forcing a sale,...more

McGinnis Lochridge

26-Step Mechanical Framework For Interpreting Deeds? Texas courts reject "mechanical" deed interpretation while creating a 28-step...

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The El Paso Court of Appeals recently published an opinion that provides what might be characterized as 26-step step system for analyzing a deed that (perhaps inadvertently) highlights a growing irony in Texas jurisprudence....more

McGinnis Lochridge

Plain Language Meets Common Sense: Hidden Traps in Oil Patch Contract Interpretation

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What happens when a court reads your contract literally for one issue but decides what 'makes sense' for another? A geophysicist just found out. In early April 2025, the Amarillo Court of Appeals reversed in part and...more

Oliva Gibbs

Coverting a “Fixed” to a “Floating” NPRI: What (If Anything) Does ConocoPhillips v. Hahn Add to the Conversation?

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In ConocoPhillips Co. v. Hahn, the Supreme Court of Texas addressed whether a “fixed” nonparticipating royalty interest (“NPRI”) was later converted to a “floating” NPRI. The court weighed two possible means of this...more

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.

Texas Appellate Court Rules That ‘Free of Cost’ Clause In 1960 Deed Prohibits The Deduction of Post-Production Costs

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Let’s assume you own a 135 acre farm in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. In 2020, you negotiate a new oil and gas lease with XYZ Drilling Company. During the negotiations, you insist on a cost free, no deduction royalty of 17%. ...more

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.

Texas Appeals Court Rules that Surface Owner Could Not Enforce Pipeline Burial Covenant in Oil and Gas Lease

Houston Harbaugh, P.C. on

Let’s assume that you purchase a 105 acre farm in Greene County in 2022. You purchase only the surface estate while the seller, Farmer Jones, retains the underlying oil and gas rights. You intend to grow corn and winter...more

Houston Harbaugh, P.C.

Is Deducting Fuel Costs Authorized by Your Lease?

Houston Harbaugh, P.C. on

Deducting fuel costs from landowner royalties continues to be an ongoing and widespread practice. Not only are landowners denied a royalty on the fuel gas volume, but they are also having that same “cost” deducted from their...more

Adams & Reese

Redefining Willful Misconduct: Texas Appellate Court Announces a New, Lower Standard

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In Apache Corp. v. Castex Offshore, Inc., the Texas Fourteenth District Court of Appeal announced that showing an oil-and-gas operator’s “willful misconduct” under an operating agreement’s exculpatory clause does not require...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

Mineral Owner vs. Solar Company: New Texas Case Addresses Key Issue

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A recent Texas case, Lyle v. Midway Solar, S.W. 3d, 2020 WL 7769632 (Tex. App. Ct., El Paso 83rd Dist. 2020), addressed a challenge that many solar developers wrestle with: how to handle minerals owners. The El Paso Court of...more

Porter Hedges LLP

Recent Victory For All Texas Landowners Facing Pipeline Condemnation

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Porter Hedges recently scored a significant victory for landowners Terrance and Kenneth Hlavinka and their families (“the Hlavinkas”) against HSC Pipeline Partners, a subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners. On June 18,...more

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