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Last week, a federal jury in Mobile, Alabama, convicted a Norwegian-based shipping company of one count of conspiracy, three counts of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (“APPS”), three counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering.  Three vessel crewmembers were convicted for obstructing justice, violating APPS, witness tampering and…

In what may appropriately be called a “swing and a miss”, the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio has rejected plaintiffs’ attempt to avoid the need for medical expert testimony in a toxic tort case by pleading damages for “symptoms of discomfort” instead of disease.  Cerny v. Marathon Oil Corp, et al.,…

In yet another “retained-acreage” dispute, the Amarillo Court of Appeals recently ruled that an assignee was entitled to retain all acreage covered by the assignment of four leases, where the assignment’s retained-acreage clause invoked the maximum acreage prescribed by the applicable field rules governing proration units, and, in the absence of any such field rules,…

Background

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued an opinion regarding criminal liability under environmental statutes.  United States v. Citgo Petroleum Corp., et al., No. 14-40128, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 15865 (5th Cir. Sept. 4, 2015).  In what may be considered a warning shot to overzealous federal prosecutors looking to obtain criminal convictions…

The Fourth Court of Appeals recently held that surface owners control the matrix of the underlying earth; thus, a surface owner can give permission to drill through the subsurface to an adjacent lease. In Lightning Oil Co. v. Anadarko E&P Onshore, No. 04-14-00903-CV, 2014 Tex. App. Lexis 8673 (Aug. 19, 2015), Anadarko leased the…

A Texas appeals court recently ruled in ConocoPhillips Company v. Vaquillas Unproven Minerals, Ltd. that a lease’s retained acreage clause invoked the Texas Railroad Commission’s field spacing rule as well as the statewide drilling unit rule, Rule 38, which operated to reduce the acreage the lessee was permitted to retain under the lease from 640…

On June 16, 2015, the EPA published a notice of final permit issuance for the NPDES General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Industrial Activities (commonly referred to as the Multi-Sector General Permit or “2015 MSGP”). Click here to see the Multi-Sector General Permit. Many permittees will understandably focus on any changes made to the specific…

By: Joe Norman, Kelly Becker, James Lapeze, and Kathryn Gonski

Recently the Louisiana Supreme Court handed down a ruling that has significant implications on the oil and gas industry in the state. The Court denied the Plaintiff-landowner’s writ application which sought review of a Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal opinion that…