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2023 UNT Dallas L. Rev. On the Cusp 1 (2023)

handle is hein.journals/ontcp2023 and id is 1 raw text is: 









                          by IJNT DALLAS., LAW0 EVIE



   PLEASE   CITE THIS  ARTICLE:   CIMAREX ENERGY CO. V. ANADARKO
   PETROLEUM CORP. & THE QUESTION OF WHO HAS TO PRODUCE


                        Christopher Stewart Kulander*


                            TABLE  OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................2
II. PRELIM INARY M ATTERS.............................................................................................  3
III. CIMAREX CASE BACKGROUND  ................................................................................. 6
IV. OPINION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS....................................................................  10
V. APPLICATION TO THE PRESENT CASE: CIMAREX ENERGY  CO. v. ANADARKO
PETRO LEU M C O RP.............................................................................................................14
VI. DISCUSSION................................................................................................................. 18
VII. CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................30




       In Cimarex Energy Co. v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp.,1 a mineral lessee that
produced no oil or gas during its lease's primary term claimed to have maintained
the lease by paying apportioned royalties based on a co-tenant's production. Before
the expiration of the disputed lease and the resulting litigation, the non-producing
lessee had sued the producing lessee for an accounting because the non-producing
lessee was  not paid  proceeds from  the captioned  land's production. In the
Settlement Agreement  that followed, the producing lessee paid the non-producing
lessee's lessor apportioned royalty arising during the primary term of the disputed
lease. When  the primary term of the disputed lease ended, however, the lessor
declared the disputed lease expired and recognized the ascendancy of a top lease
covering the same lands. The producing lessee was also the top lessee. The non-


* Director and Professor, Harry L. Reed Oil & Gas Law Institute, South Texas College of Law
Houston, B.S. (Geology) and M.S. (Geophysics), Wright State University; Ph.D., Texas A&M
University (Petroleum Seismology); J.D., University of Oklahoma. Licensed in Texas and New
Mexico. The author thanks Owen Anderson, Richard Booth, William Burford, Terry Cross, John
McFarland, David Pierce, and Randall Sadler for their opinions, thoughts, and assistance. This
article is dedicated to the memory of Amelia Lee Kulander, Apr. 4, 1941-May 31, 2021.
1 574 S.W.3d 73 (Tex. App.-El Paso 2019, pet. denied).

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