Co-author Rusty Tucker

In 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

It’s still true, “Whiskey’s for drinkin’, water’s for fightin’.” Gray Reed lawyers Brock Niezgoda and Stephen Cooney spoke to TIPRO’s summer conference on the use, control and ownership of water in oil and gas operations. Here is their PowerPoint.

The takeaways:

Groundwater
Continue Reading Water: The Hot Commodity in the Permian and Elsewhere

Here is Something We Know

 A Texas mineral estate owner has an implied easement for reasonable use of the surface estate in developing and extracting the minerals below.

 And a Question

Can the mineral estate owner and his lessee use the easement to produce from a mineral estate that is pooled with the surface estate?