Late last week, the Texas Supreme Court told a cautionary tale for operators with its unanimous opinion in Samson Exploration LLC v. T.S. Reed Properties Inc., which addressed the circumstance in which a well is situated within not just one pooled unit, but instead within two overlapping units. The operator, Samson Exploration, took it upon itself to pay royalties from the well to interest owners from one of the units, to the exclusion of the…
Seeing Double: Operator Must Pay Royalties To Multiple Units, Says Texas Supreme Court
New Guidance for Noise and Pollution Claims in the Oil Patch
Featured in this week’s episode of our energy law podcast: the Texas Supreme Court issues new guidance for noise-and-pollution claims in the oil patch, as well as a landmark opinion on subsurface mineral trespass; Colorado energy regulators ask their state’s high court to clarify their responsibilities; another federal court strikes down an oil-and-gas class action for lack of common facts; and the Texas Railroad Commission survives Sunset review without a scratch.
The Texas Railroad Commission Will Not Ride Off Into The Sunset
In Texas, all state agencies effectively have an “expiration date”: each is periodically abolished, by operation of law, unless the Legislature passes a bill to extend its existence. Established in 1977, the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission evaluates agencies and issues recommendations to lawmakers. According to the agency’s website, “Sunset answers a basic question for the Texas Legislature: Are an agency’s functions needed, and if so, how can the agency work better and save money for…
Federal Regulators Get Closer to Abandoning Stringent New Fracing Rules
KRCL oil-and-gas trial lawyer Tom Ciarlone, in the latest episode of our energy law podcast, gets you up to speed on the status of stringent new fracing rules for federal and tribal lands, and also dials you into several important developments out of the Texas Supreme Court—including a little-known pitfall that could get your well damage case dismissed with prejudice. You can subscribe to our energy law podcast on iTunes and on Google Play.
Trump Executive Orders Target the Expansion of Drilling—Onshore and Off
Today, President Donald Trump will sign an executive order putting into motion a review by the Department of the Interior of all national monuments established since 1996—on its surface a seemingly uneventful action, but the ultimate purpose of the order is predicted to be the opening of large swaths of currently protected public lands to drilling, as well as mining and logging activities. By way of example, in its waning days, the prior administration established the so-called “Bears Ears National…
Oil-and-Gas Case Law Round Up: January 2017
January has been a busy month for courts in Texas and beyond in the oil-and-gas segment. In today’s post, we summarize several significant developments from the last thirty days that can be expected to have a lasting impact on E&Ps, pipeline companies, and other industry participants. Denbury v. Texas Rice Land Partners We begin with a decision from earlier this month out of the Texas Supreme Court, in which the Court clarified the standards under…
Earthquake Fracing Lawsuits Coincide With Renewed Scrutiny Of Texas Railroad Commission
I have written previously about the ongoing debate surrounding the causal role of hydrofracturing—”fracing” for short, as the industry spells it, without a “k”—in what critics have dubbed “man-made” seismic activity. The hot-button issue is front and center once again, as a perfect storm of mainstream media attention and high-profile litigation have brought renewed focus to the controversial practice. Last week, the Dallas Morning News published a scathing exposé that not-so-subtly suggested that the elected members of the Texas Railroad Commission—the state’s regulatory…
Texas Railroad Commission Proposes Rule Changes to Generate Efficiencies and Cost Savings in the Oil-and-Gas Industry
Yesterday, Christi Craddick—one of the State’s three elected Railroad Commissioners—introduced the Texas Oilfield Relief Initiative, a nine-point plan aimed at easing regulatory burdens on the energy industry. The initiative will be rolled out in multiple phases over the next several years. The first phase of the program is slated for completion by January and will consist of new guidelines for defining active oil wells, as well as new marginal well rules for both oil and…