In September, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that have the potential to settle the state/local battle over fracking regulations. The conflict roots back to 2013, when voters in Longmont passed a ban on hydraulic fracturing, and Fort Collins passed a five-year moratorium. In response, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (“COGA”) […]
The Conservation Basics A primary objective of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Act (the “Act”) has always been conservation through prevention of waste and enforcement of efficient drilling and production practices. In other words, traditionally the Act served one important god – the resource conservation god. Since 1994, however, the Act and those who […]
The KISS principle that systems perform best with simple rather than complex designscan apply in the world of legal drafting. This lesson was recently learned by lawyers who drafted a complex “work-around” to avoid a judicial interpretation of standard oil and gas lease royalty language on whether post-production costs should be included in the royalty […]
On August 19, 2015 the Fourth District Court of Appeals in San Antonio, Texas, ruled that, because the surface estate owner controls “the matrix of the underlying earth,” it could grant an oil and gas operator the right to site wells on the surface owner’s property and drill through the earth within the […]
On April 14, 2015, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unanimously approved several changes to its drilling regulations, which will go into effect on June 28, 2015 (i.e. 75 days after approval). The Commission increased the minimum distance between drilling operations and homes or other occupied structures from 350 feet to 500 feet. The […]
BLM’s new fracking rule is scheduled to take effect on June 24, 2015, but the Western Energy Alliance and Independent Petroleum Association of America moved for a preliminary injunction on May 15 to keep that from happening. They allege irreparable harm because the new rule lacks the factual, scientific, or engineering bases to sustain it. […]
Despite the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management lease sale covering lands in Wyoming conducted on May 5, 2015, brought in a paltry $688,000, which is the lowest total since August 2009, the Wyoming State Geological Survey (“WSGS”) has begun the process of developing the next generation of the Oil and Gas Map […]
In July of last year, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, the administrative body charged with regulating oil and gas production, responded to media and public pressure by promulgating strict new rules to reduce the amount of gas flared in the state. Under these rules, producers may flare for 90 days without restriction. After the 90-day […]
Developing federal lands in the Northern Denver Julesburg Basin (“DJ Basin”), Colorado, has been a challenge for many operators active in the area because of the presence of the Pawnee National Grasslands (“PNG”), an area that has been largely off-limits to oil and gas development. While development of fee minerals in the DJ Basin has […]
As promised by Secretary Jewell in March, see previous post, BLM is initiating a rulemaking process– Announcement of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR)– to “solicit public comments and suggestions that may be used to update the BLM’s regulations related to royalty rates, annual rental payments, minimum acceptable bids, bonding requirements, and civil penalty assessments for Federal onshore […]