Occidental Permian Ltd. v. Marcia Fuller French

391 S.W.3d 215, 181 Oil & Gas Rep. 647, 2012 WL 5351131, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8996
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 31, 2012
Docket11-10-00282-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 391 S.W.3d 215 (Occidental Permian Ltd. v. Marcia Fuller French) 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
Occidental Permian Ltd. v. Marcia Fuller French, 391 S.W.3d 215, 181 Oil & Gas Rep. 647, 2012 WL 5351131, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8996 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

JIM R. WRIGHT, Chief Justice.

This is a suit to recover certain royalty payments under two leases. Marcia Fuller French and other royalty owners sued Occidental Permian Ltd., the operator of the Cogdell Canyon Reef Unit, and alleged that Occidental had underpaid royalties due under the leases. Following a nonjury trial, and after the trial court refused to allow the royalty owners’ request to reopen to present evidence of market value, the trial court rendered judgment for the royalty owners. We reverse and render.

Appellees 3 are royalty owners under two separate oil and gas leases covering lands in Scurry and Kent Counties. Both leases are subject to a unitization agreement; appellant’s predecessor, as lessee of both leases, was a party to the unitization agreement. Appellant is the current lessee under the leases and is the operator of the Unit pursuant to the terms of the unitization agreement. Appellant is the only party against whom recovery has been sought in this lawsuit.

Following the decline of production in the Unit, in 2001, appellant initiated a C02 tertiary recovery operation in order to enhance the production from the Unit. The recovery operation involved injecting C02 purchased from Kinder Morgan C02 Company into the Unit wherein, generally stated, the C02 mixes with the oil in the reservoir and thereby causes more oil to be produced. A result of this type of recovery operation is that the well produces, along with the oil, casinghead gas that, in addition to impurities normally associated with production in the absence of this type of operation, is heavily laden with C02 — in this instance about 85% of the casinghead gas stream.

After the casinghead gas stream from the Unit is measured, Kinder Morgan *218 takes possession of the stream and transports it fifteen miles to its Cynara facility. At Cynara, the stream is processed and a majority of the C02 is extracted from the stream, as well as two-thirds of the natural gas liquids (NGLs). The extracted C02 is then sent back to the Unit for reinjection. As a result of the activities at Cynara, the remaining stream is composed of not more than 10% C02. The remaining gas stream and separated NGLs are sent to the Snyder Gas Plant (SGP) where the remaining C02 is extracted, the NGLs are stabilized, and the stream is processed for sale. The C02 extracted at the SGP is also sent back to the Unit for reinjection.

In order to initiate this C02 tertiary recovery operation, appellant entered into a Treating and Processing Agreement with Kinder Morgan, which covered all of the gas produced from the Unit. In the contract, appellant agreed to pay Kinder Morgan two types of fees each month: (1) a monetary fee and (2) an “in-kind” fee. The monthly monetary fee has decreased over time as Kinder Morgan has recovered its cost of capital for certain investments; the fee is not charged against royalty owners. The in-kind fee amounted to 30% of the NGLs and 100% of the residue gas extracted from the casinghead gas stream produced from the Unit. Because no royalty is paid on this in-ldnd fee, the in-kind fee is, in effect, deducted in calculating royalty payments.

The contract also required Kinder Morgan to enter into a Gas Processing Agreement with Torch Energy Marketing, Inc., the operator of the SGP. The contract required the SGP to complete the activities described above. For these services, Kinder Morgan would pay a processing fee of 25c per mcf of the gas entering the SGP.' Beginning in 2006, this fee escalated annually. Kinder Morgan received 100% of the residue gas and 100% of the NGLs — 70% of the NGLs were to be allocated to appellant pursuant to the terms of appellant’s contract with Kinder Morgan described above.

The royalties paid by appellant are based on the NGL proceeds appellant received from Kinder Morgan under their agreement. Thus, because the in-kind fee is assigned to Kinder Morgan as compensation under appellant’s contract with Kinder Morgan, appellant paid royalties on 70% of the NGLs produced from the Unit and did not pay any royalties on the residue gas. Royalty is commonly defined as the landowner’s share of production, free of expenses of production. Heritage Res., Inc. v. Nations Bank, 939 S.W.2d 118, 121-22 (Tex.1996). Although it is not subjected to the costs of production, royalty is usually subjected to postproduction costs, including taxes, treatment costs to render the hydrocarbons marketable, and transportation costs. Id. at 122. However, the parties may modify the general rule by agreement. Id.

At trial, appellees argued, and the trial court agreed, that the entire C02 project— the transportation of the C02-laden stream fifteen miles to Cynara and then to the SGP, the extraction of C02 at both places, and the return of the C02-permeated stream to the Unit for reinjection — was all a production activity. That a bulk of the NGLs ultimately produced was also separated from the casinghead gas stream at Cynara was “merely incidental to this overall production process.” The deduction of the in-kind fees paid by appellant to Kinder Morgan (100% of the residue gas and 30% of the NGLs) improperly imposed part of the expenses of production upon appellees. The trial court concluded that, because appellant did not pay royalties on 100% of the NGLs and residue gas ultimately produced from the Unit, appellant underpaid its royalty obligations.

*219 In Issues Two, Three, and Five, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence offered to show that appellant underpaid royalties owed to ap-pellees.

In an appeal from a bench trial, the trial court’s findings of fact have the same force and effect as jury findings. Anderson v. City of Seven Points, 806 S.W.2d 791, 794 (Tex.1991). We review a trial court’s findings of fact under the same legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence standards that we use when we determine whether sufficient evidence exists to support an answer to a jury question. Kennon v. McGraw, 281 S.W.3d 648, 650 (Tex.App.-Eastland 2009, no pet.). When we review evidence for legal sufficiency after a bench trial, we consider all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s judgment. We credit any favorable evidence if a reasonable fact-finder could and disregard any contrary evidence unless a reasonable factfinder could not. City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 821-22 (Tex.2005). In a factual sufficiency review, we consider all the evidence and will uphold the trial court’s finding unless the evidence is too weak to support it or the finding is so against the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust. Serv. Corp. Int’l v. Aragon, 268 S.W.3d 112, 118 (Tex.App.-Eastland 2008, pet. denied).

We review a trial court’s conclusions of law de novo. BMC Software Belgium, N.V. v. Marchand,

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Bluebook (online)
391 S.W.3d 215, 181 Oil & Gas Rep. 647, 2012 WL 5351131, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8996, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/occidental-permian-ltd-v-marcia-fuller-french-texapp-2012.