Oil & Gas Blog

By: Timothy L. Thorne On December 2, 2020, in the case of West v. Bode, the Supreme Court of Ohio clarified that the Ohio Marketable Title Act (“MTA”) and the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (“DMA”) are, “independent, alternative statutory mechanisms that may be used to reunite severed mineral interests… Read more

[1] Rig Count Overview & Summary Count as of January 8, 2021, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview (last visited 01/10/2021); North America Rig Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (last visited 01/10/2021) (follow “Rigs by State –… Read more

[1] Rig Count Overview & Summary Count as of December 18, 2020, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview (last visited Dec. 21, 2020); North America Rig Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (last visited Dec. 21, 2020) (follow “Rigs by… Read more

      [1] Rig Count Overview & Summary Count as of December 4, 2020, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview (last visited Dec. 14, 2020); North America Rig Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (last visited Dec. 14, 2020) (follow “… Read more

      [1] Rig Count Overview & Summary Count as of December 4, 2020, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview (last visited Dec. 7, 2020); North America Rig Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (last visited Dec. 7, 2020) (follow “Rigs by… Read more

[1] Rig Count Overview & Summary Count as of November 25, 2020, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview (last visited Nov. 30, 2020); North America Rig Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (last visited Nov. 30, 2020) (follow “Rigs by… Read more

[1] Rig Count Overview & Summary Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview (last visited Nov. 20, 2020); North America Rig Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (last visited Nov. 20, 2020) (follow “Rigs by State – Current and… Read more

  [1] Rig Count Overview & Summary Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview (last visited Nov. 13, 2020); North America Rig Count, BAKER HUGHES, https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (last visited Nov. 13, 2020) (follow “Rigs by State – Current and… Read more

By: Hayley S. Murray The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to review the Thirteenth Court of Appeals decision in Ellison v. Three Rivers Acquisition LLC, 2019 WL 613262 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi, 2019). At the time of his death in 1925, J. D. Sugg was the owner of a 640-acre tract of land in Irion… Read more

By: Paul B. Westbrook On September 16, 2020, the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Endeavor Energy Resources L.P. v. Energen Resources Corp. and John Thomas Quinn, 18-1187. The two issues on appeal are (1) whether the court of appeals properly construed the retained-acreage… Read more

By: Paul B. Westbrook  On September 17, 2020, HFB appellate specialist Russell Barton appeared in oral argument before the Texas Supreme Court in the case of BlueStone Natural Resources II, LLC v. Walker Murray Randle, No. 19-0459. The two issues on appeal are (1) whether an addendum to an oil and… Read more

By: Megan R. Knell  On a number of occasions, courts have emphasized that words matter.  The court in Jones Energy, Inc., et al. v. Pima Oil & Gas, L.L.C. took it a step further.  While the Amarillo Court of Appeals took into account the words used, its analysis focused more specifically on… Read more

By: Shawna R. Rinehart In Five Star Royalty Partners Ltd v. Jack Mauldin Jr., et al., the court was tasked with interpreting a 1927 deed (the “Deed”) to determine whether the grantee received a mineral interest or a royalty interest in over 5,000 acres in West Texas.  In doing so, the court… Read more

By: Timothy L. Thorne The Trump administration recently finalized a pair of regulations aimed at rolling back the Obama administration's 2016 New Source Performance Standards, which control methane emissions from new and modified sources in the oil and gas industry. Under the rules affected, the… Read more

By: Caroline K. Featherstone  In the recent case of Devon v. Sheppard, the Texas Court of Appeals addressed a highly unique royalty provision. The lease at issue provided that the royalty could be calculated based on a percentage of Devon and BP's gross proceeds from the sale of minerals produced… Read more

By: Hayley S. Murray  In a recent Supreme Court decision, United States Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, the Court was faced with the interaction of several federal laws governing certain agencies’ authority to grant use of public lands. In 2017, Atlantic Coast… Read more

By: Shawna R. Rinehart The court in Cline, et al. v. Sunoco, Inc. (R&M), et al. recently ruled that Sunoco, Inc. owes $150 million to the class action plaintiffs, consisting of more than 50,000 Oklahoma royalty owners, for purposely failing to pay interest on 1,596,945 late royalty payments… Read more

By Megan R. Knell      Landowners achieved another victory in the recent case of Hlavinka v. HSC Pipeline Partnership, LLC, in which the court revisited the pipeline company’s “common carrier” status based on the reasonable probability test established in Texas Rice and also the valuation of the… Read more