Two states recently addressed regulation of hydraulic fracturing of gas wells in two radically different ways. Ohio The Ohio legislature has passed Senate Bill 315, to be signed by the governor, requiring reporting of information on all wells that are stimulated (If you go to the link, the new legislation is underlined). To summarize: Operators and contractors injecting substances into the… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Fraud in Texas: A Primer
Posted in Contract DisputesWas it your long-time confidant who says your fiancee isn’t good enough for you and then runs off and marries her, or a seller’s remorse on a hundred-million dollar scale? We don’t know yet, but in Allen v. Devon Energy Holdings, a Houston court set guidelines for the trial of a case involving redemption of a… Continue Reading
Taxes, Taxes, and More Taxes
Posted in Local OrdinancesJohn Maynard Keynes is no favorite of fiscal conservatives (There is more to like from Friedrich Hayek), but Mr. Keynes did have it right when he said, “The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward”. In two separate Texas suits, oil and gas producers are attempting to live out Mr…. Continue Reading
“We’ll Fill in the Blanks Later” Does Not Make a Contract
Posted in Lease DisputesContract law 101: To have a binding contract there must be an offer and an acceptance. And so it is in oil and gas leasing in Louisiana. Thus, in Ballard v. XTO there was no binding agreement to take a lease. A landowner representing an unknown number of potential lessors… Continue Reading
The Conspiracy That Never Was
Posted in Lease DisputesSponsoring the most paranoid Texas conspiracy theory since the puff of smoke from the grassy knoll, groups of neighborhood associations, homeowners, and businesses sued virtually all of the major Barnett Shale producers over their failure to complete negotiations for oil and gas leases for bonuses of up to $20,000 per acre. Cessation of negotiations - or culmination of the sinister and… Continue Reading
“Paying Quantities” Revisited After 113 Years
Posted in Lease DisputesSurely, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has been busy since century before last, but apparently not on a lot of oil and gas cases. The court revisited the standard, first established in 1899, for determining whether an oil and gas lease has produced in paying quantities. In T.W. Phillips Gas & Oil Co. v. Jedlicka, the… Continue Reading
Wolves and the EPA Revisited
Posted in RegulationsMy last post featured editorial kudos for the EPA’s evenhanded approach to regulation of one aspect of drilling: handling of methane and volatile organic compounds during fracking. Perhaps the accolades were premature. I speak of the recently exposed and widely distributed video of the then-new and recently-resigned EPA Region 6 director Al Armendariz invoking an inappropriate analogy to his “philosphy” of regulating oil and gas producers. If… Continue Reading