Texas

With the renaissance of onshore oil and gas activity in the United States ranging from the Bakken Field in North Dakota and Montana; to the Marcellus Field underlying portions of Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; to the Barnett and Eagle Ford Fields of north and south Texas respectively, it is not surprising that there is renewed oil- and gas-related litigation. The 2010-2011 term of the Texas Supreme Court was particularly active in deciding oil and gas cases or cases that have a direct impact on oil and gas operations. One has to look back to 1923, when the Texas Supreme Court issued several significant oil and gas decisions on the same day, to find a year in which more oil and gas decisions were handed down. This Article will explore those decisions, along with a single Fifth Circuit opinion, in an attempt to explain their impact on oil and gas jurisprudence