IP Petroleum Co. v. Wevanco Energy, L.L.C.

116 S.W.3d 888, 160 Oil & Gas Rep. 1125, 2003 Tex. App. LEXIS 8043, 2003 WL 22158819
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 11, 2003
Docket01-02-00106-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 116 S.W.3d 888 (IP Petroleum Co. v. Wevanco Energy, L.L.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
IP Petroleum Co. v. Wevanco Energy, L.L.C., 116 S.W.3d 888, 160 Oil & Gas Rep. 1125, 2003 Tex. App. LEXIS 8043, 2003 WL 22158819 (Tex. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION ON REHEARING

GEORGE C. HANKS, Jr., Justice.

We withdraw our opinion of May 8, 2003 and issue the following in its stead. The plaintiffs motion for rehearing is denied.

A jury found that IP Petroleum Company, Inc., appellant, was grossly negligent when it breached its contract with Wevan-co Energy, L.L.C.; David L. Neal, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Frances Neal; Mark Schoomaker; Jane Schoomaker; Bonnie Vaughan; and Martin Phillips (collectively, “the plain *891 tiffs”). In 11 points of error, IP argues that it did not breaeh the contract and the award of lost profits and attorneys’ fees was improper. The plaintiffs appeal the trial court’s refusal to award prejudgment interest on purely economic damages. We reverse and render judgment that the plaintiffs take nothing.

Factual and Procedural Background

The Kerans Theory

In 1993, Dr. Don Snyder read a scientific article in an issue of a professional association bulletin. The article, entitled “Karst-Controlled Reservoir Heterogeneity in Ellenburger Group Carbonates of West Texas,” was written by a geologist, Charles Kerans. It proposed an unconventional new approach to drilling for oil in West Texas.

The article was based on a theory of “karsting,” or cave formation, in the Ellen-burger Formation in West Texas. According to the Kerans theory, millions of years ago, caves were formed in West Texas and were slowly filled with sediment. Over time, new rock was formed on top of the caves, collapsing the roofs of the caves and slowly burying the collapsed caves far below the surface. Kerans theorized that the buried, collapsed caves created three distinct strata in the Ellenburger Formation — a “cave roof’ zone, a “cave fill” zone, and a “cave floor” zone. Both the cave roof and cave floor zones contain oil, Ker-ans opined, but existing wells had tapped only the oil in the cave roof zone. According to Kerans, if oil wells were drilled deeper into the Ellenburger Formation, through the cave roof zone and the unproductive cave fill zone, those wells might produce oil if they tapped into a productive area of the cave floor zone.

The Kerans theory marked a significant departure from the conventional approach to drilling in the Ellenburger Formation. The conventional approach, known as the “scratch and sniff’ method, was to drill only to the very top of what Kerans called the cave roof zone and siphon off any oil. The concern was that if a well was drilled any deeper, it would be inundated by a zone of water.

The Millard E-2 Well

Dr. Snyder decided to test the Kerans theory on the Millard E-2 well in the Penwell Field in Ector County. In 1955, Phillips Petroleum Company had drilled the Millard E-2 to a total depth of 8600 feet — just a few hundred feet short of where Kerans theorized the oil-rich cave floor zone might be found. Dr. Snyder believed that the Millard E-2 presented an opportunity to test the Kerans theory at relatively low cost. Phillips executed a “farmout agreement” with Dr. Snyder, allowing him to deepen the well. 1

The Investors

Dr. Snyder approached Richard Reeve, the owner of Cleveland Oil Company. The two men had previously worked together on several projects. Cleveland Oil paid Snyder $40,000, and Reeve agreed to have Cleveland Oil find investors in exchange for a four percent overriding royalty interest. Cleveland Oil did not have to pay any of the drilling costs, but would receive four percent of the profits.

The promotional materials Cleveland Oil sent to prospective investors indicated that “this is a wildcat test.” 2 The materials *892 also indicated that “mechanical risk is present in re-entries.” This risk disclosure was made because the Millard E-2 had been abandoned for 50 years and it was impossible to predict how badly the well had deteriorated.

Frank Cox, the managing member of Wevanco Energy, L.L.C. had invested with Reeve in the past, and Cox decided that Wevanco would invest in the Millard E-2. Cox’s accountant, David Neal, also invested, as did several of Neal’s friends and family members.

Selection of IP Petroleum

Snyder, Reeve, and Cox chose IP as the operator of the well. Snyder presented the proposal to Dr. Mike Senieh, a project geologist at IP. Dr. Senieh reviewed the promotional materials and found one sentence in the solicitation letter to be of particular interest — “Other than for faulting, the Cave Roof is thought to be reasonably continuous across a field, while the Cave Floor zones are more heterogeneous much like Permian age rock.” Dr. Senieh testified that he understood this to mean that if the cave floor contained any oil at all, it might be productive in some areas but unproductive in others. He estimated that the chances of success for the Millard E-2 were one in ten, or possibly one in five.

Scott Nonhof, an engineer, conducted a petroleum engineering analysis on the well. Nonhof s handwritten notes indicate: “ *Bottom Line — Don’t have any production data worth a flip-This is a WILDCAT not supported by Production Data but risk to reward is very high. Supper [sic] low cost to do reentry.”

IP agreed to participate, and IP and Cleveland Oil signed a participation letter agreement that described the objective of the project to “deepen the Phillips Petroleum Millard E # 2 from its current TD of 8626' to +/- 9000' to test the Ellenbur-ger Cave Floor Zone.” IP also agreed to pay 50 percent of the drilling costs, in exchange for a 50 percent share of the profits if the project were to succeed.

The Joint Operating Agreement

Before drilling began, Cleveland Oil, IP, and all the investors executed a comprehensive Joint Operating Agreement (JOA). The JOA is a form contract promulgated by the American Association of Petroleum Landmen and is used throughout the industry. The two provisions of the JOA that are at issue in this case provide as follows:

[IP, as the operator would] continue the drilling of the well with due diligence to a depth of 9125' below the surface of the ground or a depth sufficient to test the Lower Ellenburger Formation, whichever is lesser, unless granite or other practically impenetrable substance or condition in the hole, which renders further drilling impractical, is encountered at a lesser depth, or unless all parties agree to complete or abandon the well at a lesser depth.
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[IP] shall have no liability as Operator to the other parties for losses sustained or liabilities incurred, except such as may result from gross negligence or willful misconduct.

The Drilling

On December 3, 1997, IP began drilling the Millard E-2, and, as warned in the promotional materials, IP encountered mechanical difficulties that ultimately increased the costs of drilling to $388,000, instead of $282,625 as originally projected. *893

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116 S.W.3d 888, 160 Oil & Gas Rep. 1125, 2003 Tex. App. LEXIS 8043, 2003 WL 22158819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ip-petroleum-co-v-wevanco-energy-llc-texapp-2003.