Vestiges of the early Haynesville Shale land rush remain.
Imagine: The lease is about to expire. Lessee (Mecom) offers lessor (Henderson) $90 per acre for an extension, telling him, “I could extend for two more years without consent so I’m giving you free money.” He explains his intention to drill more Cotton
The fellow on the right is after your lease. The result in Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation v. Healey, LP was so bad for the lessee I’m going directly to …
The Takeaways
Landmen: First, when offered a lease with automatic termination language, run away like you’re chased by an Obamacare Navigator who hasn’t undergone
Consider this while celebrating the resurrection of Big Tex: When a lease prohibits post-production cost deductions, can a lessee deduct those costs from a lessor’s royalty? Yes, says Potts v. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C. In a market value lease, where lessee sells the gas “at the well” and the court applies the netback approach to calculating
Lawyers and landmen are taught that a document affecting real or immovable property not recorded in the public records means nothing to a stranger. Like O. J.’s quest for the real killer, lower premiums after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the present I would have given my wife except I forgot our
Occasionally in my litigation experience I’m reminded of time-honored rules of law. Often I’m pleased, sometimes I’m not. So it was, I assume, for the parties in Midnight rilling, LLC v. Triche et al .The Rules
In Louisiana
PanAmerican Operating Inc. v. Maud Smith Estate highlights the perils of working through independent landmen: maintaining enough control to be sure the work is done as you like it, but also wanting authority to disavow his actions should you desire.
PanAmerican hired an independent contractor, Wormser, to obtain oil and gas leases
Ross et al v. Enervest Operating, L.L.C. et al has several teachable moments for Louisiana royalty owners.
“Nice to Meet You” is Not a Demand
Under the Louisiana Mineral Code, a lessee is entitled to written notice from the lessor that royalties are due. The court concluded that such a notice must be more than
It must be maddening to non-lawyers that a large segment of an industry can operate in harmony by agreeing that a contract in widespread use means one thing, only to have party-crashers decide it means another. Total E & P U.S.A., Inc. v. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp. et al arose out
A provision in a contract, no matter how unequivocal, does not always trump the law. The oil and gas lease allowed assignments, but no change or division in ownership of the land or royalties would be binding on the lessee until the acquiring party had furnished lessee with the instruments constituting his chain of title
At Looper Reed we advise our clients that it is good business to accommodate your neighbor informally, if you can. Sometimes that leads to attempted world domination, as Chamberlain learned from Hitler in 1938. Closer to home it is my college-age son using his bedroom floor as a summertime closet. It can also lead to