Railroad Commission of Texas v. Manziel

Texas Supreme Court

Railroad Commission of Texas v. Manziel

361 S.W.2d 560, 17 Oil & Gas Rep. 444, 6 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 45, 93 A.L.R. 2d 432, 1962 Tex. LEXIS 680, 1962 WL 115949

CourtTexas Supreme Court

DecidedOctober 17, 1962

DocketA-8779

StatusPublished

Cited by76 cases

This text of 361 S.W.2d 560 (Railroad Commission of Texas v. Manziel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Railroad Commission of Texas v. Manziel, 361 S.W.2d 560, 17 Oil & Gas Rep. 444, 6 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 45, 93 A.L.R. 2d 432, 1962 Tex. LEXIS 680, 1962 WL 115949 (Tex. 1962).

Pincite

Opinion

SMITH, Justice.

This direct appeal is the result of a suit filed by the appellees, Dorothy N. Manziel et al. in the 126th District Court of Travis County, Texas, to set aside and cancel an order of the Railroad Commission of December 12, 1960, permitting the appellants, the Whelan Brothers, to drill and inject water in their Eldridge #11 well located at an irregular spacing on the Whelan Brothers-Vickie Lynn unit 206 feet south of the boundary of the Manziel Estate-Mathis lease in the Vickie Lynn Field, Marion County, Texas. The Railroad Commission was the original defendant in this action; the Whelan Brothers intervened and aligned themselves in defense of the Railroad Commission’s order. For convenience the parties will hereinafter be referred to as the Whelans, the Manziels and the Commission.

In addition to alleging irregularities in connection with the Whelans’ application for the permit, the Manziels attacked the *562 Commission’s order on the grounds that it would cause waste, that it would result in the confiscation of the Manziels’ property, that the permit was not necessary to protect the correlative rights of the Whelans’, and that the order was in violation of the Commission’s own rules.

After trial, the District Court entered a judgment cancelling the order allowing the Whelans to inject water at the irregular location, enjoining its enforcement and enjoining the Whelans from injecting water in their-Eldridge #11 well under said order. The judgment of the District Court has been brought to this court for review under Art. 1738a, Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes, and Rule 499-a, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.

The Vickie Lynn Field was discovered in February, 1956, and field rules were established by the Commission, effective August 20, 1956. The rules provide for 80-acre production units with the wells to be located on that unit 660 feet from lease lines. A well located 660 feet and more from lease lines is referred to as being at a regular location while a well located at a less distance is said to be at an irregular location. All the wells in the field were drilled according to this plan except the Manziel-Mathis lease and the well located thereon is spaced 330 feet north of the adjoining Whelan unit.

At the time of the trial, the Vickie Lynn Field was divided into three separate and distinct areas. The Whelans’ property is referred to as the Whelan Brothers-Vickie Lynn Unit, and includes about 900 productive acres on which 11 producing wells have been drilled. The Manziels are the only other operators in the field and they control two units, the largest of which is referred to as the Manziel Estate-Whelan lease; it comprises about 1,135 producing acres and has 10 wells. The other unit is made up of three leases sometimes collectively referred to as the Hollandsworth leases (separately known as the Mathis, the Combs, and the Coleman leases), which were not acquired by the Manziels- until 1960. The Mathis lease contains 40.36 acres, with one well; and the Combs and Coleman leases each include 80 acres, with one well on each lease. For a better understanding of the relative size and location of each of the units involved, a plat drawn from Exhibit “A” is attached on opposite page.

The field has not been unitized as a whole, but the Whelans have unitized all of the properties of which they are lessees; however, no unitization agreement has been made between the Whelans and the Man-ziels. The Manziels have not unitized all of the properties under their control, and the situation in the Vickie Lynn Field is further complicated by the fact that the Manziels have a waterflood program on their Whelan lease, and have no such program on their Hollandsworth leases.

The Vickie Lynn Field is in a solution gas drive reservoir, and it is estimated that between 816 barrels to 824 barrels of oil per acre foot were originally in place beneath the field. As production was carried out, the resultant displacement and the failure to maintain adequate pressure has caused the original pressure to drop from 2650 pounds per square inch to the point where it is now of an average of 371 pounds per square inch. The present low pressure in the reservoir means that the remaining oil is “dead,” and from the .record it appears that the best means of recovery thereof is by the secondary method of waterflooding.

The Hollandsworth leases of the Manziels are located in the northwestern part of the field, and the result of the production from these leases and the effect of the existing water injection programs on the Manziel estate-Whelan lease and on the Whelan Brothers-Vickie Lynn Unit is to push the oil in a northwesterly direction to the Hol-landsworth leases. The purpose o-f the Whelans Eldridge #11 well is to increase reservoir pressure and to minimize the amount of oil which is pushed from their unit, across lease lines, to the Hollands-worth leases, and particularly the Manziel Estate-Mathis lease. Of the Hollandsworth *564 leases, the Manziel Estate-Mathis lease is in the closest proximity to the operations of the Eldridge #11 well of the Whelans, and if the operations can be held valid in relation to the Mathis lease they are valid as to the rest. It is the Whelans’ contention that in a situation such as exists in this field their waterflood program must have the dual purpose of efficient recovery of oil from producing wells on their property and the prevention, so far as is possible, of the loss of oil from beneath their lease due to the pushing or drainage of oil to other properties.

*563

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI