Oil and Gas Lease Ownership Challenges
Below are the materials the National Business Institute asked me to prepare for a seminar on Oil and Gas law. LEASE / OWNERSHIP CHALLENGES, DISPUTES AND NEGOTIATIONS A. Recent case law and litigation trends Though Ohio was one of the earliest states to have commercial production of oil and gas, surprisingly, it has not developed much of a body of case law in the field of oil and gas....Read More
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Non-Consenting Landowners and Conflicts Between Leases
This article discusses situations arising when several people own the same piece of land, and only some of them sign an oil and gas lease. Resolving this issue requires a discussion of basic property ownership principles. Types of Land Ownership Ownership in land takes many forms. Some individuals are the sole owner of their land. Another piece of land could be owned by several people, such...Read More
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Why am I Still Receiving Royalty Checks?
I sold my property but did not reserve the mineral rights. Why am I still receiving royalty checks? If you did not reserve mineral rights when you sold your property, you are almost certainly not entitled to royalty checks anymore. The reason the oil and gas company keeps sending them is simple: they don’t know that the property has been sold. Somebody has to tell them. Just because they keep...Read More
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Getting an Oil and Gas Company to Change Who They Pay
I bought property with an existing lease on it. What do I do? How do I get an oil and gas company to update their records and add me as the current owner? Most oil and gas leases (even really old ones) contain some variation of this phrase: “No change of ownership shall be binding on the Lessee until it is duly notified.” This is legalese for: the oil and gas company will keep paying the old...Read More
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Fracking Bans and Eminent Domain
As shale drilling increases across the country, fracking bans do, too. In New York, for example, more than 50 municipalities have issued moratoriums or even outright bans on fracking. Many Ohio municipalities have followed suit. A lawsuit addressing this issue is currently pending before the Ohio Supreme Court: Munroe Falls vs. Beck Energy. Are municipal fracking bans legal? This question...Read More
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Free Gas Issues
Many oil and gas leases provide the lessor with free gas. This provision was fairly common in older leases, but has disappeared to a large extent for newer leases tailored to shale gas wells. Here is a list of frequently asked questions and concerns about landowners exercising their right to free gas under an oil and gas lease: Who is entitled to free gas? You may be entitled to free gas if...Read More
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Forced Pooling – Trends, Benefits and Detriments
Recently I wrote about Ohio’s mechanisms for forcing unleased mineral owners into a drilling unit. Oil and gas producers have increasingly started to rely on these mechanisms to drill horizontal wells to the Utica / Point Pleasant shale formation in eastern Ohio. These same laws require transparency for these procedures, and as part of a public records request, I obtained several...Read More
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Forced Pooling
Before drilling an oil and gas well in the state of Ohio, a driller must first apply for a permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Part of the driller’s permit application includes a map indicating the leased lands the driller wants to include in the drilling unit. Several considerations dictate the size this drilling unit can be. The underlying oil and gas lease,...Read More
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