Fershee Article: Oil & Gas Survey: West Virginia (2020)

Over the years, I have been contributor to the Texas A&M Journal of Property's annual oil and gas law survey. This year's article (available here) took a little longer to post than usual, but given all that's gone on in the past year, that's pretty much unavoidable.  For those who wonder what oil and gas law as to do with business law, well, I humbly submit that access to energy is, in the modern world, the foundation upon which virtually all business is built. 

I don't think that's overstating it, though it may be overstating the importance of this particular piece. Nonetheless, hopefully it will have value for some folks.  The abstract for my Oil & Gas Survey: West Virginia (2020) follows: 

This Article summarizes and discusses important recent developments in West Virginia’s oil and gas law as determined by recent West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals cases. There were no substantial legislative changes in the covered period.

The discussed cases considered:

(1) whether hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling were allowed when an old lease could not have contemplated such methods were not permissible;

(2) proper interpretation of deed language;

(3) whether all oil and gas leases have implied rights of pooling;

(4) whether partial, but regular, tax payments precluded a tax sale; and

(5) whether the West Virginia Code allowed for a cap placed on operating expense deductions and if the cap can be described as both a percentage and dollar figure.