The Public Trust Doctrine was an issue the Nevada Supreme Court recently adjudicated. Had it succeeded every mineral owner and every person who holds water rights or even has a water well, could have been at risk.   But it can be expected in the future that we see more legal challenges to the ownership of water rights,… Read More »

The Green New Deal (GND) is coming and with it the poorest in the nation will suffer. Simple fact. Market forces rule. They always rule. Stifle competition and pick winners and losers and everyone suffers. The GND will pick electric vehicles over gas driven ones without recognizing the problems it creates and it will, once again, be blamed… Read More »

Today it is argued that the fossil fuel industry is “dirty”. Perhaps but all energy sources will be extracted from the earth or those extracted from the sun will rely heavily upon materials that are mined, such as lithium and silica. Construction requires the use of heavy machinery, almost all of which is fueled by diesel or gasoline… Read More »

Geologists, landmen, and engineers often work for an over-riding royalty interest (ORRI.) As one geologist recently told me, “If I can ever get rid of this ORRI, I’ll never sign another.” What is an “over-ride”? In lieu of a direct payment, the owner of an ORRI may elect to earn a percentage of the well. This used to… Read More »

The Fayetteville Shale was the second shale gas play to succeed. The Barnett Shale proved the technology to work. And in doing so, opened a Pandora’s Box of horizontal shale plays dependent upon the slick water frack; or early in the play, nitrogen and carbon dioxide fracks. Some failed while others succeeded spectacularly. The Caney, a shale situated… Read More »

The NM Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources publishes a quarterly. The current issue claims the average rainfall in New Mexico has remained erratic but neither up nor down over the past 50 years. But they ominously claim the temperature has risen by 3 degrees and is likely to increase dramatically. It took about 10 seconds looking at… Read More »

The coronavirus highlighted a problem with appraisers and appraisals for banks. Namely, a sudden surge of short and long term borrowing has apparently created all sorts of shortages in appraisers willing to work for banks. What did they expect? They spent the last 15 years criticizing appraisers, blaming them for the financial crisis and demanding they work for… Read More »

With oil prices for Oklahoma Sour posting $7.07 and $20.20 for Oklahoma Sweet as of 4/7/2020, could it be worse? Well, Cushing is also charging $4 plus deduction for any oil. And if you have Bakken oil, the cost by train to move this oil exceeds the market value. In other words, production is about to freeze up.… Read More »

Gas flaring is being allowed and mineral owners should be up in arms over it.  Proponents declare the oil couldn’t be produced and the explorers would go bankrupt if unable to get that pesky gas out of the way by simply burning it off to get at the oil.  Producers have only themselves to blame if they go… Read More »

The state of the oil industry has always been chaotic, from the days of old to the present. Today the average person thinks of the oil business as being deep horizontal wells, long laterals and trucks galore frac’ing multiple stages and wells at the same time. The cost of these wells can exceed $10 million apiece.  At $50/bbl.,… Read More »