Must a production payment out of four oil and gas leases be proportionately reduced if two of the leases expire because production ceased? In Apache Deepwater, LLC v. McDaniel Partners, Ltd., the Texas Supreme Court says yes. Absent express language in the assignment to the contrary, this general rule applies: When an assigned
Can the E&P Debtor Reject Gas Gathering Agreements in Bankruptcy?
What’s a sure way to destroy untold millions of dollars of energy infrastructure value built in reliance on the promise of reimbursement for huge capital investments necessary to move a producer’s product to market for the next 20 years or more?
Here’s another one: What’s a helpful way to effect the goal of bankruptcy reorganization
Post-Production Deductions Revisited
Apparently unsatisfied with its analysis in Chesapeake Exploration v. Hyder, the Texas Supreme Court revisited its original opinion on an overriding royalty clause. The Hyders remain the winners. In effect, the court replaced its reliance on earlier decisions interpreting royalty clauses with its own analysis (which looks a lot like the original).
The Basics
Let’s
Railroad Commission Plugs the Wrong Well – Another Issue
“Back in the day, when the Yankees always won the World Series and you could name a park after a Confederate general, we didn’t need no written contract; a man’s word was his bond, … yadda, yadda, yadda”.
Three things about that saying strike me. First, it was always a man; second, “the day” was
Railroad Commission Not Off the Hook for Plugging the Wrong Well
“You are my friend, kind of.” Hush Puppy, as she stares down the Aurochs in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Is our “friend” the Texas Railroad Commission?
Gulf Energy bought a package of offshore wells out of bankruptcy. Eight needed to be plugged and the Commission undertook that task, given the operator’s insolvency. Oops! The
What is an Adequate Description For a Mineral Lien ?
Co-author Alexandra Crawley
Thanks to In re Reichmann Petroleum Corp., we know one that works in Texas: A lien affidavit attaching either a plat or a plat and a Texas Railroad Commission Form W-1 provides an adequate property description for a mineral lien against an entire lease under the Texas Property Code.
Current practice
108 Year-Old Lease Survives
Co-author Brooke Sizer
A baseball question: You’ve got men on late in the game; a base hit to the right side wins. Do you put the bat on the ball for a single or swing for the deep seats, risking the game-ending strikeout?
The Stiles leases were executed in 1907, when Honus Wagner was in
Operator: Be Careful Handling Ad Valorem Taxes
This is to be expected in these dark days of diminished cash flow. Imagine: You are the operator and the non-ops have given you their share of ad valorem taxes, expecting you to pay them to the taxing authority at the right time. Things are a little tight, if you know what I mean, so
Texas Property Code Change – No More Subordinations?
Special thanks to Gray Reed colleagues Paul Yale and Dominic Salinas for this post.
Weary of having to solicit those pesky subordinations of pre-existing mortgages to your recently-acquired oil and gas leases? Tired of chasing down the third assistant to the fourth vice president for loan servicing just to obtain one simple document? The 2015
Things That Never Change in the Oil Patch: How to Aggravate the SEC
In the spirit of Charles Ponzi, today we offer advice for attracting special attention from powerful federal authorities who want to punish you. Helms and Kaelin marketed a limited partnership to hold royalty interests in 2,000 oil and gas wells Here’s how they did it, and you can too!
Make promises
In a private placement