The issue in this case was whether South Texas Pipelines LLC (“STX”), a subsidiary of Enterprise Products Partners L.P., had the power of eminent domain to condemn an easement across the appellants’ (“Landowners”) land for a new pipeline to transport polymer grade propylene (PGP).
Following the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling in Van Dyke v. Navigator Group that courts interpreting “antiquated instruments” that use 1/8 within a double fraction must begin with the rebuttable presumption that 1/8 refers to the entire mineral estate, Texas courts have wrestled with its implications.
The legacy doctrine recognizes that during the “era” in which the deed in question was executed, “‘1/8’ was widely used as a term of art to refer to the total mineral estate.”
The current answer to this question is no. In R.R. Comm’n of Tex. v. Opiela, the Austin Court of Appeals concluded that PSA/allocation wells are not the same as pooling under Texas law.
