Ohio Court of Appeals Hands Down Latest Oil and Gas Ruling

By -
From Ohio Gas & Oil:
On June 2, 2014, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals issued another significant ruling based on Ohio’s Dormant Mineral Act found at R.C. §5301.56 (“DMA”), in a case known as Schwartz v. Householder, 2014-Ohio-2359. This ruling expands upon and adds to the Seventh District’s benchmark ruling in Walker v. Noon, 2014-Ohio-1499 issued on April 3, 2014. The Schwartz decision represents another victory for surface owners attempting to recover ownership of severed minerals that were deemed abandoned prior to the amendment of the DMA in 2006. 
To recap the DMA, the statute was originally enacted in 1989 and then amended in 2006. Its purpose is to eliminate “dormant” mineral interests. The 1989 DMA provides where the severed mineral interest owner has not utilized its minerals as specified in the DMA for a period of 20 years, the mineral interests will be deemed abandoned and returned to the current surface owner. Importantly, the 1989 DMA is self-executing, meaning that the severed minerals in question will be automatically abandoned if no activity related to the minerals has occurred. The only subsequent action that surface owners need to take is to file a lawsuit to obtain a court order declaring the minerals to be abandoned under the DMA and returned to the surface owner. Under the 2006 DMA, surface owners must first file and serve a notice of abandonment on the severed mineral owner. Accordingly, the 1989 DMA has become central to the disposition of literally hundreds of oil and gas lawsuits between surface owners and severed mineral owners related to the Utica Shale development.
Click here to read more of this article.


Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Popular posts from this blog

Fracktivist in Dimock Releases Carefully Edited Video, Refuses to Release the Rest

By -
Image
From Energy in Depth: There is something very strange going on along Carter Road, in Dimock, Pennsylvania, and I’m not speaking of natural gas, methane migration, contamination, litigation or even the extensive water testing there by the EPA and others.  No, I’m talking about a new “Watergate” conspiracy, complete with 18 minutes of missing tape (well, video, actually). It seems the ever-present Green Party member and  naturist   Vera Scroggins  (a/k/a  Vera Duerga ) has posted a video of Craig Sautner meeting with the EPA.  Mysteriously, the video is but 14 seconds in length, cutting off conversation in what is obviously mid-stream.  It raises a question Craig Sautner, like  Ronald Reagan in Kings Row , might have asked, “Where’s the rest of me?’  Carter Road, isn’t Kings Row, of course, (at least not until you arrive at  the mansion Scott Ely, one of the Dimock litigants, is building with his royalty money ), but there appears to be...
Read more

The Second Largest Oil and Gas Merger - Cabot and Cimarex

By -
Image
       Due to investor pressure, the U.S shale drillers are being pushed to improve financial and operational performance after a few years of poor returns. Even though the industry has improved its numbers, when compared to last year, investors still want more to be done for them to earn more money.      That's why two mid-tier shale drillers, Cabot and Climarex, have decided to merge in order to eliminate $100 million in annual costs, which means more money for the investors. This all-stock transaction is valued at about $7.4 billion, which is relatively high for the oil and gas sector.      The new entity will be renamed and the headquarters located in Houston, Texas. Cabot shareholders will own 49.5 percent of the new entity, and Climarex the rest.       The Cimarex-Cabot merger will address the investor's demand for a higher amount of returning cash. The initial plan is to pay a 50-cent-per-share special dividen...
Read more

Do You Know The History of Fracking?

By -
Image
  In 2018, 59% of total oil production in the U.S came from hydraulic fracking, which means it accounted for more than two-thirds of domestically manufactured gas. By 2024, fracking will reach an astounding $68 billion market value! Of course, fracking is not a new drilling method as you can trace it back hundreds of years. That's why we want to consider the history of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). We will be stating historical facts about it and focusing on the major historical occurrences that have influenced modern-day fracking. Pre-Fracking Days The idea of fracking started back in 1862 when Edward A.L. Roberts (Civil War veteran) witnessed Confederate soldiers exploding artillery rounds into a canal that obstructed a battlefield. At the time, Edward A.L. Roberts called it superincumbent fluid tamping. On April 26th, 1865, Edward A.L. Roberts began experimenting with exploding torpedoes, which consisted of lowering a torpedo containing an amount of powder from fifteen to tw...
Read more