Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law Commons^™

Subsurface Trespass In The Restatement (Fourth) Of Property: An Appraisal And Alternative Account, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Articles

Building on the scholarly work of leading property theorists Henry Smith and Thomas Merrill, the recently approved Fourth Tentative Draft of the Restatement (Fourth) of Property prescribes treating all entries below ground as ordinary trespasses. That includes entries in the shallow subsurface by building foundations and utility lines, as well as invasions in the deep subsurface by mining shafts, oil and gas wells, and substances injected for disposal and storage. The Restatement comes at an important time in the development of subsurface trespass law, as developers, courts, and policymakers grapple with the growing use of subsurface technologies for horizontal drilling, …

Oil & Gas And Corpus Linguistics, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

Oil and gas law focuses on the subsurface mineral estate, which is just what it sounds like: the estate that entitles one to the subsurface, to the stuff that is underground. That, of course, includes the minerals under a given piece of property, and the value associated with that is enormous. So, it is a big deal to have the right to minerals, and, if I convey to you "the mineral estate" of Blackacre or "the minerals under Blackacre" or something similar, then I have given you something very significant, indeed. As such, it is critical to know just what …

Conflicts And Confluences Between Surface And Mineral Estates With Ccus, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) presents a new way of using an old resource: the subterranean rock structures and their interstitial “pore” space that make up the subsurface of the earth. Injecting carbon into these structures also raises a number of new legal questions about their ownership and the relations between the owners of the structures and the owners of other subsurface resources contained within them, like oil and gas, coal, coalbed methane, and geologically native carbon dioxide. This Article explores these new legal questions and the conceptual difficulties they present with the aim of guiding participants in CCUS …

The Potential For Conflicts Between Ccs Projects And Mineral Extraction, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

This article classifies the types of conflicts likely to occur between carbon dioxide sequestration and mineral extraction operations occurring simultaneously on the same tract of land. It then sets up framework for thinking through the legal disputes that may result. These are modest goals, and the central problem—concurrent carbon dioxide sequestration and mineral development—is more complex than can be fully analyzed here. I expect that much more work will need to be done on other important questions, hopefully building on this framework. Three further questions worthy of attention are (i) how these principles guide resolutions of specific kinds of disputes, …

Ad Coelum And The Design Of Property Rights, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

This Article seizes on a specific doctrinal discussion in Eric Claeys's Natural Property Rights to argue for the importance of understanding property doctrines in the context of a system of interconnecting rules and standards and not in isolation. The ad coelum doctrine provides that land ownership entails ownership of the suprajacent airspace as well as the underlying subsurface. As Claeys's discussion highlights, scholars disagree about the significance of ad coelum both conceptually, as to what function the rule serves in defining and allocating property, and normatively. It is only by viewing ad coelum in the context of how it interacts …

Subsurface Trespass: Private Remedies And Public Regulation, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

There is a growing literature examining when subsurface invasions from activities like tunneling, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and waste disposal will constitute actionable subsurface trespasses. Liability for subsurface trespass has become an important question for many reasons, including that a significant climate-change technology, carbon dioxide sequestration, hinges on the ability to inject massive quantities of carbon dioxide underneath the land of many owners. To date, the subsurface trespass scholarship has paid relatively little attention to two topics downstream of liability:private remedies for trespassing subsurface activities. This Article provides a high level account of the role of, and relationship between, private …

The Concurrent Use Of Land For Carbon Sequestration And Mineral Development, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

As carbon capture and sequestration projects gain momentum across the United States, questions about the coordination of sequestration with mineral extraction—especially oil and gas development—are growing in urgency. Using many of the same technologies, these two marvels of modern ingenuity aim to exploit the same subsurface resources for different purposes: one to bring out the hydrocarbons and the other to put away the byproducts of their combustion. From needing to drill through each other’s operations to reach deeper strata, to competing for the use of reservoir storage space (“pore space”), mineral development and carbon sequestration projects are sure to clash, …

The Cost Of Unstable Property: Oil, Gas, And Other Confusing Mineral Interests, Chad J. Pomeroy

Faculty Articles

Most people think of property as a thing: a chunk of land or a piece of personal property. Most lawyers, hopefully, have a more sophisticated view and think of property as a set of rights that exists with respect to a thing and governs how one interacts with that thing vis-a-vis other people. But even that nuance is not refined enough for an oil and gas lawyer. Such a practitioner does, of course, view ownership as a set of rights, but the thing at hand is not just a piece of real property or the part of the land that …

Pore Space Property, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

Through modern technology, we can use the void pore space of underground rock formations for a growing number of socially beneficial purposes. These run the gamut from unconventional oil and gas production to climate change mitigation. The common law of property and tort, however, has struggled to keep up. Significant questions remain about the nature of property rights in pore space. Of particular interest are the limits, if any, on an owner’s right to use pore space for beneficial purposes when it extends beneath the land of another. For example, may A hydraulically fracture an oil well on her property …

Getting Past Possession: Subsurface Property Disputes As Nuisances, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

Property rights in the subsurface of land are adapting to accommodate modern activities like massive hydraulic fracturing (fracing). Property rights will need to continue adapting if they are to accommodate other developing activities like large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS). Courts and commentators rarely approach the nature of subsurface property directly. They tend instead to discuss appropriate standards for tort liability when disputes arise — for example when artificial fissures from a frac treatment extend into and drain oil or gas from a neighbor’s land. The case law and literature generally approach unauthorized subterranean invasions as trespasses. Because the tort …

The Texas Supreme Court's Evolving Mineral-Deed Jurisprudence In The Shale Era: The Implications Of Wenske V. Ealy, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

The twenty-first century oil and gas boom in the Lone Star State stimulated the industry and enriched Texas landowners. However, the technologies credited with igniting this boom, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, could not prevent the historic boom-to-bust cycle. Instead, the production unleashed from shale plays in Texas and other states created a world-wide glut, sinking oil prices from highs above $100 to a low of $26 per barrel. Yet, thanks in part to plays in West Texas, "Shale 2.0" is underway. The booms have blessed and cursed Texas, leading to a variety of legal disputes. Disputes that have plagued …

Food, Fracking, And Folly, Melissa Mortazavi

Faculty Articles

Few industries in the United States carry the clout and capital of the oil and gas and agricultural sectors. Economic behemoths, their booms and busts shape the destinies of states, define national policy, and secure the life or death of small towns across the United States. Like it or not, the agriculture and oil and gas industries have strong lobbies and vehement and mobilized constituencies. Recent years have seen both sectors facing public push-back on modern trends in extraction, growth, and methods of production. In response to these developments, these industries have used their considerable political capital to seek new …

Imputing Regulatory Failures In Oil And Gas Licensing: A Discussion And Proposal, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

This Article argues that the Commission's legitimate interest in enforcing its oil and gas regulations, especially including well-plugging regulations, does not justify absolute imputation of regulatory liability to third-party operators under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 55-155(c)(4). But, under certain circumstances, the state's interest may justify imputing personal liability on the individual constituents of a license applicant where the individual is culpable for the underlying regulatory violation or the applicant has a business connection with the operator primarily responsible for the violation, and the competing public policies of groundwater protection and limited liability justify the imputation. This Article proposes a procedural …

The Legacy Of The 1/8th Landowner's Royalty And The Texas Supreme Court: Has Hysaw V. Dawkins Resolved The Double Fraction Dilemma, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

Lawyers, landmen, landowners, and producers face a long list of perennial problems when interpreting or drafting documents that affect mineral estates. I have written extensively about these problems, including the "fixed or floating" non-participating royalty issue addressed in a recent Texas Supreme Court case, Hysaw v. Dawkins. In that case, three siblings, who were beneficiaries of their mother's will, disputed the appellate court's holding that the double fraction 1/3 of 1/8 created a "fixed" 1/24th non-participating royalty interest (NPRi), rather than a "floating" 1/3 NPRi. The dispute arose when one sibling leased her land and negotiated a 1/5th landowner's lease …

Oil, Gas, And Mineral Titles: Resolving Perennial Problems In The Shale Era, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

Mineral deeds present a list of perennial interpretative problems, which create uncertainty about ownership rights in mineral estates and the proceeds from the sale of oil and gas production. Consequently, the following issues arise: (1) deeds with conflicting fractions; (2) the “mineral or royalty” question; (3) the application of the common law “rule against perpetuities” to non-participating royalties, a common interest in the oil patch; (4) the meaning of “minerals”—does it include oil and gas?; (5) the executive’s duty to lease; and (6) deed interpretation versus “reformation.”

States with long histories of production and case law have grappled with several …

Avoidable "Fraccident": An Argument Against Strict Liability For Hydraulic Fracturing, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

Whether fracking is an abnormally dangerous activity for purposes of strict liability appears to be an issue of first impression. That larger issue primarily turns on a smaller one: whether fracking accidents—or “fraccidents”—are avoidable or unavoidable. To that end, this Comment argues that when practiced with reasonable care and in the vicinity of other petroleum production, fraccidents are avoidable, and thus, fracking is not abnormally dangerous. Instead of strict liability, courts should combine a negligence standard with res ipsa loquitur to determine liability of fracking companies that contaminate water sources. First, this Comment will present background on the process and …

Legal And Commercial Models For Pore-Space Access And Use For Geologic Co2, R. Lee Gresham, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Lord Coke, The Restatement, And Modern Subsurface Trespass Law, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Subsurface "Trespass": A Man's Subsurface Is Not His Castle, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Texas Supreme Court And Oil And Gas Jurisprudence: What Hath Wagner & Brown V. Sheppard Wrought?, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

According to the Texas Supreme Court, a lessor’s interest remains pooled even after her lease terminates. The Court’s November 2008 opinion in Wagner & Brown, Ltd. v. Sheppard provoked strong reactions among oil and gas law practitioners, academics, and others involved in the industry. In fact, the court received nearly a dozen amicus curiae briefs signed by more than 20 attorneys—many of whom typically represent producers—urging it to reconsider. Not persuaded by these concerns, the court finalized its opinion on June 5, 2009. So now the question for players in the oil patch is: What hath Wagner & Brown, Ltd. …

Geologic Co2 Sequestration: Who Owns The Pore Space?, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Rule Of Capture--An Oil And Gas Perspective, Bruce M. Kramer, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Exploratory Unitization Under The 2004 Model Oil And Gas Convention Act, Owen L. Anderson, Ernest Smith

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Interpreting Mineral And Royalty Deeds: The Legacy Of The One-Eighth Royalty And Other Stories, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

Mineral and royalty deeds are notoriously difficult to interpret. Courts complicate the interpretive process in at least two ways. First, they produce opinions that fail to appreciate and explain unique oil and gas concepts. Second, they render deed records unreliable. A variety of title problems flow from this instability. However, a common trait is frequently encountered: the influence of the one-eighth royalty provision typically used for decades in oil and gas leases. Unfortunately, courts have failed to acknowledge this influence. For this reason, title litigation will continue to loom under the legacy of the one-eighth royalty, and title examiners will …

Royalty Valuation: Should Overriding Royalty Interests And Nonparticipating Royalty Interests, Whether Payable In Value Or In Kind, Be Subject To The Same Valuation Standard As Lease Royalty, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Geophysical "Trespass" Revisited, Owen L. Anderson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

A Pragmatic Approach To Decision Making In The Next Era Of Oil And Gas Jurisprudence, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

A pragmatic approach to oil and gas law is the most effective way for the judiciary to address arising issues in that area of law. As in the Great Era of the Oil and Gas Industry, new and recurring questions will continue to confront courts in this next era of oil and gas jurisprudence. Because policies have shifted and technology has evolved, it is imperative to reassess the approaches used by courts in answering these questions. In order to respond effectively to questions posed by shifting policies and new technologies in the next era of oil and gas jurisprudence, courts …

“Oil, Gas, And Other Minerals” Clauses In Texas: Who’S On First?, Laura H. Burney

Faculty Articles

Stability and certainty of land titles encourages development of mineral resources and means individuals need not resort to judiciary for interpretation. Unfortunately, uncertainty prevails because Texas courts complicate the interpretive process and frequently need the assistance of nonlegal sources for comparison, explanation, and enlightenment. Clarity demands that courts adopt a definition of the “ordinary and natural meaning” test similar to that proposed by Dean Eugene Kuntz; burying the surface destruction test by retroactively applying the former.

The surface destruction test produced a title examiner’s nightmare. Despite the Texas Supreme Court’s determination to rectify this in Moser v. United Steel Corp. …