Author: Ana Navarrete

Ana specializes in Oil and Gas litigation. Her experience includes matters in South Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale Play in disputes involving title issues, drilling operations between operator and non-operators, royalty underpayment, offset and development, cessation of production and lease termination, among other issues in the upstream oil and gas sector. Ana is also knowledgeable in matters involving state and federal oil and gas regulatory authorities includes agency hearings, examining the scope and limits of regulatory authority and providing advice about how to comply with or seek exemptions to agency rules.
25Mar

Acknowledgment of Record Title Held Not to Defeat Adverse Possession Claim

Scribner v. Wineinger, No. 02-19-00208-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 9170 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Oct. 17, 2019, no pet.)

In this leasehold adverse possession case, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals held that an acknowledgement of the record title holder’s title by an adverse possessor will not defeat an adverse possession claim if the limitations clock had already run out before the acknowledgement occurred. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the oil and gas company on their affirmative defense of adverse possession and limitations title under the five-year statute.

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20Mar

Heirs Estopped From Claiming Interests Reserved in 1989 Warranty Deed

Wagenschein v. Ehlinger, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 5949 (Tex. App—Corpus Chisti July 11, 2019, pet. filed)

In this case, the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals held that, when grantors of a 1989 warranty deed signed division orders and accepted royalty payments consistent with treatment of the reservation as creating a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, that established an affirmative defense of quasi-estoppel, subsequently estopping those grantors’ heirs from claiming the reservation created a tenancy in common.

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13Mar

Appellate Court Dissolves an Operator’s Injunction Against Town of Flower Mound

Town of Flower Mound v. EagleRidge Operating, LLC, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 7561 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Aug. 22, 2019, no pet.)

In this case, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals held that the trial court lacked authority to grant a temporary injunction against the Town of Flower Mound enjoining the enforcement of a local ordinance that limited truck traffic to and from well sites.

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11Mar

Disposal Well Operator Held Not to Be an “Affected Person” With Standing to Challenge Competitor’s Application for Disposal Well Permit

NGL Water Sols. Eagle Ford, LLC v. R.R. Comm’n, No. 03-17-00808-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 10302 (Tex. App.—Austin Nov. 27, 2019, no pet. h.)

This case involves a dispute as to whether a competitor saltwater disposal well operator is an “affected person” under 16 Tex. Admin. Code §3.9(5)(E) and, thus, whether such competitor has standing to challenge an application for disposal well permit.

NGL Water Solutions Eagle Ford (NGL) operated a saltwater disposal well under a permit issued by the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC). In April of 2016, one of its competitors, Blue Water, filed an application to operate a commercial injection well at a nearby location. NGL protested the application. At the RRC hearing, Blue Water claimed that NGL was not entitled to protest Blue Water’s application because NGL was not an “affected person”. NGL argued that Blue Water’s permit was not in the “public interest” because there was no present industry need for additional disposal capacity in the area, because NGL had existing injection wells with excess capacity in the area.

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6Mar

Mineral Buyer Unable to Demand Prior Unclaimed Royalties From Comptroller

Enerlex, Inc. v. Hegar, No. 03-18-00238-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 6771 (Tex. App.—Austin Aug. 7, 2019, pet. filed)

In Enerlex, the Austin Court of Appeals held that a mineral buyer could not demand payment from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts for prior unclaimed royalty payments relating to the purchased royalty interest, because those royalty payments were turned over to the Comptroller under the prior owner/grantor’s name.

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19Feb

Reworking Operations Held Not to Satisfy Continuous Development Clause

HJSA No. 3, Ltd. P’ship v. Sundown Energy Ltd. P’ship, No. 08-18-00113-CV, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 7254 (Tex. App.—El Paso Aug. 16, 2019, no pet. h.)

This oil and gas lease termination dispute centered on a disagreement as to what type of “drilling operations” constituted “continuous drilling operations” under a continuous development clause. The court held that the lessee’s reworking of existing wells did not satisfy the continuous development clause, resulting in a partial termination of the lease. The court held that, while the lease contained a definition of “drilling operations” that expressly included “reworking,” that was a general definition that did not control over the more specific terms in the continuous development clause. In reaching its conclusion, the court analyzed the role of several lease provisions, including the continuous development clause, retained acreage provision, temporary cessation clause, and an agreed definition of “drilling operations.”

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3May

Four Recent Drainage and Offset Cases: A Texas Litigation Trend?

Three recent Texas cases have focused on the interpretation of express offset provisions in oil and gas leases.  Over the last year, the Texas oil and gas industry has experienced what some commentators have called “Shale Boom 2.0,” with increased drilling activity in South Texas and the Permian Basin, leading to some marketing bottlenecks and spikes in the number of drilled but uncompleted wells.

Whatever the cause, at least three reported appellate cases in the last 18 months have focused on the construction of express offset clauses in oil and gas leases.  Oil and gas landmen and lawyers alike should take note of these decisions, as they each underscore that Texas courts do not interpret oil and gas leases merely by reference to the industry’s general rules, but instead on a careful analysis of the actual language used by the parties in the lease.  And as one recent case illustrates, the “surrounding circumstances” of the shale boom might lead to results some would not expect.

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