Non-governmental organizations that oppose oil and gas development have in the last few years begun to challenge not only Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decisions authorizing oil and gas drilling operations but also BLM decisions that could have the effect of continuing leases in effect that might otherwise expire. In two recent decisions, the Interior […]
Operators who do not regularly operate on federal lands may be surprised to discover that, unlike the typical private lands oil and gas lease, a federal lease does not contain a drilling operations clause that would extend the lease beyond the expiration of its primary term while drilling operations are being conducted. A recent decision […]
On June 19, 2017, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled against the petition of Kinder Morgan CO2 Co., LP — the operator of oil and gas leaseholds — disputing the Montezuma County Assessor’s 2009 corrective tax assessment on leaseholds for the prior tax year which resulted in a retroactive assessment of over $2 million in property […]
President Trump announced on June 1 that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The announcement follows months of uncertainty about whether President Trump would fulfill his campaign pledge to withdraw U.S. participation in the deal (which was signed by 195 countries with only two countries in opposition–Nicaragua (because it wasn’t stringent enough) […]
On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, Judge Stephen P. Friot, United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, dismissed a nationally significant lawsuit brought over earthquakes linked to oil and gas wastewater injection wells on jurisdictional grounds. See Sierra Club v. Chesapeake Operating, LLC, et al., No. CIV-16-134-F (W.D. Okla., Order dated 4/4/2017) (unpublished), […]
A recent Colorado Court of Appeals decision involves two parts of the statutes regarding the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (Commission): the pooling statute and the statute regarding payment of proceeds of production. In Grant Brothers Ranch, LLC v. Antero Resources Piceance Corporation, ___ P.3d __ (2016), 2016 COA 178, the court held that […]
The U.S. Department of Interior recently announced new regulations (effective January 1, 2017) governing how federal royalties on oil and gas produced from federal leases are to be calculated. These regulations make some significant changes on how lessees are to value the production of natural gas from federal leases for the purposes of determining federal […]
The arbitration clause in an oil and gas lease is likely not the most hotly negotiated term or even one that the parties think twice about. However, recent litigation in Pennsylvania should serve as a reminder to lessors and lessees to be aware that a poorly drafted arbitration clause may lead to unwanted litigation. Recently, […]
On September 9, 2016, 30 minutes after winning and stopping the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s (“Sioux” or “Tribe”) request to enjoin the Dakota Access Pipeline (“DAPL”), the Obama administration upended the rule of law. The Departments of Justice, Army and the Interior issued a joint statement that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) “will […]
The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) within the Department of the Interior issued new royalty valuation rules on July 1, 2016. Although the goal of the regulations is to simplify the calculation of royalties on federal oil, gas and coal, the 65 pages of rules please no one. Under a new definition for “misconduct,” […]