Clifton v. Johnson: The Texas Supreme Court Puts Some Guardrails on Van Dyke
The Texas Supreme Court's Clifton v. Johnson decision delivers the clearest guidance yet on when the Van Dyke floating royalty presumption can be overcome.
Producer’s Edge
TEXAS OIL AND GAS LAW BULLETIN
Get our email newsletter and unlock access to subscriber-only content and updates
Processing your application
Please check your inbox and click the link to confirm your subscription (check your spam).
There was an error sending the email
Get started with our featured articles
The Texas Business Court Continues to Stress the Importance of Properly Pleading Facts to Support Your Cause of Action
The Texas Business Court's latest opinion in Enosis Investments v. Jensen delivers another clear message: insufficient pleading will sink your case — before it ever reaches trial.
26-Step Mechanical Framework For Interpreting Deeds?
Texas courts reject "mechanical" deed interpretation while creating a 26-step framework. Bush v. Yarborough reveals the irony of structured analysis disguised as flexible law.
Supreme Court of Texas Washes Out the “Anadarko Washout”
If your co-tenant drills the well… does your lease still live? The Texas Supreme Court just tackled a high-stakes question that’s shaken up oil and gas titles across the state.
Plain Language Meets Common Sense: Hidden Traps in Oil Patch Contract Interpretation
What happens when a court reads your contract literally for one issue but decides what 'makes sense' for another? A geophysicist just found out.
Unclear Jury Instructions Allow for Various Interpretations
Lario Oil & Gas Co. v. Black Hawk Energy Services, Ltd. highlights the importance of carefully drafting jury instructions and questions.
Wyoming: Can Lessees Pool Overriding Royalty Interests?
There is a debate among Wyoming oil and gas attorneys, and I wanted to weigh in. Some (maybe even many) Wyoming lawyers believe an overriding royalty interest simply cannot be pooled in Wyoming without the owner's direct and express consent. Of course, this is only a debate in...
Legalese: Standard Interpretive Boilerplate
"Legalese Schmegalese." I first started reviewing contracts back in my days working with TIC Wyoming, Inc., a subsidiary of the Kiewitt Corporation, reviewing large scale heavy industrial construction contracts for construction jobs such as oil refineries, natural gas compressor stations, and coal mine facilities. I'll be...
Farmout Agreements: Key Decisions and Negotiation Points
Introduction As I stated in my Part One of my Farmout Agreement Series, farmout agreements can be somewhat less "straight-forward" than other common oil and gas agreements. Contracts, Leases, JOA's, for example, are each highly standardized and have one or more publishers of highly-adopted...
Where the Use of Forms Goes Wrong
The Proliferation of Forms: The wide-spread use of forms in the oil and gas industry has created nothing short of a revolution in allowing land professionals to expedite the process of putting complex agreements in place. Additionally, this "forms culture" has dramatically helped to ensure excellent quality...
Mineral Liens: Collecting Unpaid Debt for Oilfield Service Companies
Purpose and Application of Mineral Liens Everyone in the construction industry is intimately familiar with the "Mechanic's Lien," which gives a security interest in the title to real property (and sometimes personal property) to those who have supplied materials or labor to improve the property. In...
Dirty Tricks & Cheap Moves in the Oilpatch
High risk, high reward. We in the oil and gas industry have been toughened; have been forced to learn to traverse the risk, and to reap the rewards. Heck, oil and gas exploration and production is practically as synonymous with the "American Dream" as we can get. The...
