The Texas Supreme Court recently issued its decision in Nettye Engler Energy L.P. v. BluStone Natural Resources II, LLC, Cause No. 20-0639, which has added to the Texas jurisprudence on the frequently litigated subject of post-production costs that can be deducted from a royalty interest. The deed that conveyed the…
The Fifth Circuit recently denied a landowner damages in their suit against a pipeline company. In Mary v. QEP Energy Co., No. 21-30195 (5th Cir. 2022) the Louisiana landowner had given the pipeline company an easement on their property. The easement had a right angle turn in it. Hard to…
The Texas Supreme Court has recently agreed to hear an appeal in a case involving the Texas Central Railroad. Oral argument is scheduled for January 11, 2022. The case is Miles v. Tex. Central R.R. & Infrastructure, Inc., 2020 WL 2213962 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg 2020), pet. granted, (Oct. 15, 2021)…
The National Agricultural Statistics Service of the United States Department of Agriculture has recently published its Cash Rents survey. According to USDA, “NASS conducts the county-level Cash Rents survey every year in all states except Alaska. U.S. and state estimates are released in August every year. All qualifying counties in…
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas recently approved a settlement in the case of Regmund v. Talisman Energy U.S., Inc. You can review pleadings in the case here. Three royalty owners filed the class action lawsuit in 2016 alleging that Talisman Energy was under-reporting royalties and…
In the recent case of Rodney Draughon v. Joycie Johnson, the Texas Supreme Court determined who would bear the burden of proof to negate the “unsound mind” tolling of the statute of limitations for a quiet title lawsuit. A “quiet title” suit is a lawsuit to establish legal title to…
The Texas Supreme Court, in the recent decision of BPX Operating Co. et al. v. Margaret Ann Stockhausen, denied an oil company’s claim that acceptance of royalty checks by the mineral/royalty owner ratified the oil company’s illegal pooling of her property. Strickhausen owned property in LaSalle County, Texas. She negotiated…
Production sharing and allocation wells have been drilled in Texas for some time, and have been used almost exclusively for horizontal wells. (An allocation well is a horizontal well drilled across two or more lease lines without creating a pooled unit that includes the leases. A production sharing well is…
In Texas, the Natural Resources Code, in Section 91.402 governs when royalties must be paid to royalty owners. Section 91.402(b) provides that royalty payments may be withheld without interest if there is a dispute concerning title that would affect distribution of payments or if there is a requirement in a…
Given the stresses on the oil and gas industry over the last year, it’s not surprising that there have been many oil company bankruptcies, both in Texas and throughout the country. Royalty owners throughout Texas have been getting notices that the operator who is paying their royalties have filed for…