Texas Court of Appeals Rules on Production Sharing Agreement
Earlier this year, the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals was called on to interpret the rights provided by a production sharing agreement. A production sharing agreement is an agreement between an oil...
View ArticleFixed vs. Floating Royalty Considered by Texas Supreme Court
Whether a royalty granted or reserved in a deed is a “fixed” or “floating” royalty has resulted in a lot of litigation in Texas. The Corpus Christi Court of Appeals considered the issue again in Hahn...
View ArticleWho Owns the Rights to Salt Caverns?
In 2022, in a case decided by the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals, the issue was who owns the right to use underground salt caverns: the mineral owner or the surface owner? In this case,...
View ArticleMore Issues with Electric Vehicle Batteries
I recently caught up with my stack of reading material, and one article that I found especially interesting is an article by Dr.Iddo Wernick entitled “The Many Problems with Batteries”. It is an...
View ArticleWho Owns Produced Water in Texas?
A somewhat unsettled question in Texas law is just who owns the water that is produced in some wells along with the oil and gas. Produced water has usually been considered a waste product, and the...
View ArticleTexas Appeals Court Refuses to Add Width to Pipeline Easement
In Premcor Pipeline Co. v. Wingate, No. 09-22-00117-CV (Tex. Civ. App. Apr. 11, 2024), the Court considered a dispute regarding Premcor’s use of Wingate’s roads and bridges to service its pipelines....
View ArticleEarly Shut In Royalty Payment Held to be Valid to Extend Lease
In Scout Energy Management, LLC v. Taylor Properties, 704 S.W.3d 544 (2024), the Texas Supreme Court addressed a case where the Plaintiff claimed that two leases had terminated because a shut in...
View ArticleSurface Owner Owns Salt Caverns
The Texas Supreme Court recently granted petitions for review regarding the ownership of salt caverns created by salt extraction in Myers-Woodward, LLC v. Underground Servs. Markham, LLC, ___ S.W.3d...
View ArticleRecoupment of Overpaid Oil and Gas Royalties
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided an interesting case involving recoupment of overpaid oil and gas royalties. In DDR Weinert, Ltd. v. Ovintiv USA, Inc., No. 23-50479, 2025 WL 636315 (5th Cir....
View ArticleSupreme Court Rules on Enforceability of Oral Representations
The Texas Supreme Court recently decided a case involving the enforceability of verbal representations. In the case of Roxo Energy Co. v. Baxsto, LLC, No. 23-0564, 2025 WL 134581 (Tex. May 9, 2025)...
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What Qualifies a Pipeline as a Common Carrier?
The Houston Court of Appeals decided a case recently on whether a pipeline was a common carrier or not. The issue is very important: if a pipeline is a common carrier it has condemnation power, and if...
View ArticleWhose Production Meets the Habendum Clause Requirements
In Cromwell v. Anadarko E&P Onshore, LLC (No. 23-0927 May 25, 2025), the Texas Supreme Court issued an opinion concerning the habendum clause in two oil and gas leases. An example of a typical...
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