Co-author Rusty TuckerIn re Plains Pipeline, L.P., is a suit to adjudicate title to groundwater. Did the trial court err in allowing a party to drill seven test holes on a tank farm? (Spoiler alert: It didn’t.) This decision evaluates an order in a unique civil discovery situation, and the underlying claims exemplify approaches to disputes over groundwater rights.
Continue Reading A Unique Discovery Request in a Texas Water Rights Fight
Co-author Rusty TuckerJatex Oil & Gas, L.P. v. Nadel & Gussman Permian, L.L.C. presents several teachable moments:
Continue Reading Lessons from an Operating Agreement Dispute
Co-author Rusty TuckerSan Miguel Electric Coop is a Texas nonprofit electric cooperative that owns and operates a power plant that supplies electricity to 38 Texas counties. After a four-week absence, they return to these pages, this time in DCP Sand Hills Pipeline, LLC v. San Miguel Elec. Coop., Inc. Read on to learn about the “paramount importance doctrine”.
Continue Reading Lignite Lease Prevails Over Pipeline Easement
A fellow walks into a bar in New Orleans. “What’ll it be?” “A Corona and two Hurricanes,” says he. “Here you go. That’ll be $20.20.”
Now, on to operations in hurricane-free New Mexico. Lessons from BEPCO, L.P. v. RMTDC Operations, LLC d/b/a Total Energy Services:
Co-author Rusty TuckerWho pays for fluid containment in an oil field emergency? It depends on your contract and, we are told in Pearl Resources, LLC v. Charger Services, LLC, oil and gas industry custom.
Continue Reading Industry Custom Determines Who Pays for a Well Emergency
Co-author Rusty TuckerIn Evans Resources, L.P., et al. v. Diamondback E&P, LLC, two agreements left the terms “constructed” and “utilized” undefined. If the terms had been defined would the outcome have been different? Maybe. Should parties define every term in an agreement? No, if they are content to rely on the ordinary meaning of the words.
The agreements
Continue Reading “Construction” of a Well Pad Requires More than a Survey
Co-author Robbie S. MorrisChanneling Winston Churchill, Gray Reed lawyer Robbie Morris urges caution for document writers and the clients who hire them: Drafting a deed is not, as many view it, a clerical undertaking. Nothing can take the place of a diligent inquiry (by all parties and their counsel) into how the grantor derived
Co-author Rusty TuckerContract construction cases are fact-specific, but one can take lessons of general application from all of them. Here are the takeaways from Jones Energy, Inc. v. Pima Oil & Gas, L.L.C.,
Caveat: If this analysis doesn’t make total sense (or, God forbid, makes no sense at all), it’s because the agreements are complicated and we don’t have the space to dive into them in detail. Focus on the takeaways.
Continue Reading Lessons from an Override Assignment
Co-authors Preston Kamin and Ryan FrankelSchools are closing, major events have been cancelled, businesses are telling workers to stay home, and Texas oil and gas producers are preparing to see how the coronavirus will affect their operations.
Many oil and gas contracts – leases and JOAs for example – have force majeure clauses. The
In Chalker Energy Partners III LLC v. LeNorman Operating LLC, the Texas Supreme Court reaffirmed its belief in the sanctity of the written contract and the freedom of parties to negotiate and agree to contracts as they desire.
Chalker and other sellers wanted to sell leases in several Panhandle counties. LeNorman signed a Confidentiality