Most Texas landlords realize that when they rent to a tenant with a criminal history, the landlord may be held liable for criminal acts committed by that tenant. Texas Property Code Section 92.025 provides that a tenant cannot sue a landlord solely for leasing to a tenant convicted of, arrested…
Fracing, or hydrofracturing, is a natural gas extraction technique by which a liquid solution (primarily made up of water) is pumped into the ground at high pressures to fracture rock formations. Fracturing the rock releases gas that is trapped inside the rock formation. The geological areas where natural gas is…
The Texas Supreme Court recently granted a petition for review in the case of Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas LLC v. Texas Rice Land Partners. The review will focus on how the courts are to apply a test created by the Texas Supreme Court concerning when an entity may identify itself as…
There has been a new development in Texas law regarding notary seals and this development affects any document in Texas that has to be notarized. This includes deeds, wills, trusts, oil and gas leases and many other kinds of documents. In fact, any document that must be filed in the…
Up until recently, to the frustration of the IRS, the cost basis for mineral interests and other assets for estate tax purposes did not have to be the same as the basis used for income tax purposes. In other words, the executor of an estate could use a lower value…
The Texas Supreme Court recently addressed how a bequest in a will of a double fractional oil and gas interest should be interpreted in Hysaw v. Bretton et al in an opinion entered on January 29, 2016. A double fraction occurs when an instrument expresses a royalty interest as the…
Occasionally, a Texas landowner will own a piece of property that lacks access, or sufficient access, to a public road. Usually, the first thing the landowner should do is to negotiate with an adjoining landowner to see if the adjoining landowner will agree to an easement of some kind. However,…
A rather depressing milestone was announced this week. The number of oil well drilling rigs in the United States has reached its lowest count since records began to be kept in the 1940s. Drilling rig counts have been by Baker Hughes, Inc. for many decades and are announced weekly. The…
Over the years I have negotiated many leases for mineral owners in the Texas Permian basin and the Eagle Ford Shale. Historically, production in these two areas has set records. These two shale plays, together with the Bakken, the Haynesville, the Marcellus, the Niobrara and the Utica represent 95% of…
Brent crude oil closed below $30 on Friday, January 15, 2016. This is the first time Brent crude has traded below $30 in over twelve years. Oil prices have plunged recently despite reports of Mideast instability, that terrorist groups have attacked storage facilities in two major Libyan ports and the…