Having Your Cake and Condemning It Too: When Asserting the Power of Eminent Domain Constitutes Breach of an Oil and Gas Lease

The rapid increase in urban drilling for oil and gas in Texas, especially the shale natural gas plays that have become major producers of energy in Texas and other parts of the United States, have created new concerns for surface owners who also own the related minerals. One question is, how can land and mineral owners limit or prohibit surface use while leasing the minerals to producers? The advent of horizontal drilling that permits exploitation of leased minerals from off-site drilling locations prompts this new concern. The following is a scenario that frequently occurs in the current development and production of oil and natural gas, especially where minerals that a landowner leases are associated with a surface that the landowner concurrently uses for residential or commercial purposes

Eminent Domain Power Granted to Private Pipeline Companies Meets With Greater Resistance From Property Owners in Urban Rather Than Rural Areas

Heightened drilling activity and pipeline construction in the more densely urbanized parts of the City of Fort Worth has exposed an increasing number of citizens to the condemnation process. Affected citizens have banded together to educate themselves on the eminent domain authority of private entities and have increasingly voiced their opposition to certain condemnation practices by pipeline companies. Pipeline companies have faced heightened resistance from urban citizens to acquiesce to their threats of condemnation. This paper outlines the major issues landowners face in condemnation and addresses legislation and other changes to the legal landscape of condemnation in Texas

Eminent Domain Power Granted to Private Pipeline Companies Meets With Greater Resistance From Property Owners in Urban Rather Than Rural Areas

Heightened drilling activity and pipeline construction in the more densely urbanized parts of the City of Fort Worth has exposed an increasing number of citizens to the condemnation process. Affected citizens have banded together to educate themselves on the eminent domain authority of private entities and have increasingly voiced their opposition to certain condemnation practices by pipeline companies. Pipeline companies have faced heightened resistance from urban citizens to acquiesce to their threats of condemnation. This paper outlines the major issues landowners face in condemnation and addresses legislation and other changes to the legal landscape of condemnation in Texas

Having Your Cake and Condemning It Too: When Asserting the Power of Eminent Domain Constitutes Breach of an Oil and Gas Lease

The rapid increase in urban drilling for oil and gas in Texas, especially the shale natural gas plays that have become major producers of energy in Texas and other parts of the United States, have created new concerns for surface owners who also own the related minerals. One question is, how can land and mineral owners limit or prohibit surface use while leasing the minerals to producers? The advent of horizontal drilling that permits exploitation of leased minerals from off-site drilling locations prompts this new concern. The following is a scenario that frequently occurs in the current development and production of oil and natural gas, especially where minerals that a landowner leases are associated with a surface that the landowner concurrently uses for residential or commercial purposes