Answer Bar: Oil, Gas and Energy Agreements and Contracting Essentials

Session 1: The Oil and Gas Lease, Part I: Classification, Scope of Grant and Duration - An in-depth focus on how an oil and gas lease is classified in law and on the key clauses of the lease.

Session 2: The Oil and Gas Lease, Part II: The Royalty Clause in an Oil and Gas Lease - In Texas, the calculation of the royalty obligation created under an oil and gas lease is determined by looking at the specific language contained in the royalty clause. Royalty terms in the lease such as "market value at the well" or "amount realized" establish how the royalty payor must measure and calculate royalty, and what post​-production costs can be allocated to the lessor interest. This presentation reviews some of the principal phrases used to describe such obligations and how the Texas courts have interpreted them, and examine​s how that same language has been interpreted differently in other jurisdictions. It analyze​s the impact of division and transfer orders and royalty payment statutes on royalty obligations contained in the lease.

Session 3: The Oil and Gas Lease, Part III: Implied Covenants - Examination of the law of implied covenants, including the duties imposed, elements necessary to establish a claim, and remedies and defenses available.

Session 4: The Oil and Gas Lease, Part IV: Other Clauses - Review other clauses in an oil and gas lease, including surface use clauses and riders, retained acreage and proportionate reduction clauses, and savings clauses such as continuous operations, dry hole, force majeure, and shut-in gas royalty clauses.

Session 5: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Permitting and Contract Issues - Address recent developments in state and federal regulation of the rapidly evolving carbon capture industry in Texas and recent trends in negotiating pore space agreements. 

Session 6: The Meaning of ‘Other Minerals’ and Other Incidents of Mineral Ownership - A reexamination of the granting clause and the meaning of “other minerals” as they pertain to other incidents of the mineral estate, including produced water, lithium, and porous space.

Session 7: Indemnity Provisions in MSAs: Texas vs. New Mexico - A practical review of the application of indemnity provisions in Texas vs. New Mexico.

Session 8: Texas Business Courts: The First 6+ Months - A view from the Business Court & Fifteenth Court of Appeals - Rules, Procedures, Cases & Know-How.