Author: Austin Brister

Austin represents oil and gas exploration and production companies and landowners in a wide variety of complex commercial litigation matters, including contract and property disputes, royalty disputes, breach of lease cases, lease termination/perpetuation disputes, and an array of other issues in the upstream oil and gas sector. Austin has prosecuted and defended claims in state courts and federal courts. Austin strives to find practical business solutions to complex issues, but if necessary, he works hard to implement effective strategies in the courthouse.

29May

Farmout Agreements: Key Decisions and Negotiation Points

Posted by: Austin Brister in Primers and Insights, The Deal Corner

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 forms. Farmout Agreements, on the other hand, range from mere one-page letter agreements to highly formalized and lengthy contracts, prepared and negotiated over several rounds of back and forth red-lining. An attorney cannot simply turn to his form books (or form folder for the tech savvy), and is unlikely to find any comprehensive checklists for drafting the agreement.

While there is no standardized form, a standard set of terminology has certainly developed that will guide most decisions, negotiations, and drafting exercises. Below, we’ll consider several of the most crucial provisions of a farmout agreement, including:

The Duty Imposed;
The Earning Barrier;
The Interest to be Earned;
Number of Wells to be Committed to the Agreement; and
Timing of Issuance of Farmout Acreage.

27Feb

Non-Participating Royalty Interests – A Simple Concept with Complex Rules

Posted by: Austin Brister in Primers and Insights

I had an excellent time this week presenting to the Houston Association of Lease and Title Analysts on February 25, 2014, at the Houston Petroleum Club. It was a great turnout, as I believe we had almost 250 attendees. We covered the basics of NPRI’s, before diving into some of the more complex resulting rules, such as ratification, community leasing, and some complications created by Horizontal Drilling.

~~I’ve included a copy of my powerpoint presentation below~~ please contact me if you’d like a copy of this presentation. Thank you very much to HALTA for having me, and thank you to everyone that attended. Please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email with any questions or comments.

Also, note that I’ll be publishing a follow-up article in the ALTA Magazine soon, and will also be presenting at the 29th Annual NALTA Conference in Nashville.

Photo some rights reserved by djonesphoto

6Jan

Mineral Liens: Collecting Unpaid Debt for Oilfield Service Companies

Posted by: Austin Brister in Primers and Insights

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 some jurisdictions, the liens are broken down further into sub-groups, such as the the “Materialman’s Lien,” “Construction Lien,” “Supplier’s Lien,” or “Laborer’s Lien.” But one lesser known type of lien can be crucial to oilfield service companies in collecting on debts owed to them: the Mineral Lien.

Liens are similar to a sort of mortgage or deed of trust on the property, acting like a cloud on title, and having the effect of hooking the owner into paying you for your services or labor before selling, financing, or refinancing the property. Mineral Liens were designed specifically for companies like oilfield service companies, to give them an easier route to collecting their debts, and receiving money rightfully owed to them. Read More »

26Dec

Farmout Agreements: The Basics, Negotiations and Motivations

Posted by: Austin Brister in Primers and Insights, The Deal Corner

Farmout Agreements are one of the most widely used agreements in the oil and gas industry.^[1]Special thanks to Professor Lowe for his excellent article on this subject, Analyzing Oil and Gas Farmout Agreements, Sw. L.J. 759 (1987). However, there is no largely adopted model form. As such, they vary a great deal. Kanes Forms has provided several Farmout Agreement Forms, but these have not been adopted as an industry standard, and so every farmout agreement approached must be fully analyzed and every term must be understood. This multi-part article will summarize the common ground, and provide a framework for analyzing the various options for certain provisions. Read More »

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	Special thanks to Professor Lowe for his excellent article on this subject, Analyzing Oil and Gas Farmout Agreements, Sw. L.J. 759 (1987).

5Mar

Terminology Behind Federal Leasing

Posted by: Austin Brister in Primers and Insights

“Common” Oil and Gas Law

As time passes, the “academic minds” have recognized more and more that Oil and Gas Law is not simply a mixture of advanced property law and advanced contract law. To the contrary, the advent and progression of the energy era as well as continued advancement into non-conventional plays has seen the formation of a robust energy culture, so sophisticated and business savvy that its typical negotiations have become forms, those forms became largely standardized, and has allowed a body of case law to envelope its every detail to the point that a new body of law has emerged: oil and gas law. ^[1]See Bruce M. Kramer, “Property and Oil and Gas Don’t Mix: The Mangling of Common Law Property Concepts,” 33 Washburn LJ 540 (1993). Read More »

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	See Bruce M. Kramer, “Property and Oil and Gas Don’t Mix: The Mangling of Common Law Property Concepts,” 33 Washburn LJ 540 (1993).

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