URBAN OIL & GAS PARTNERS B-1 v. DEVON ENERGY PRODUCTION CO.

2019 OK CIV APP 54
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 12, 2019
StatusPublished

This text of 2019 OK CIV APP 54 (URBAN OIL & GAS PARTNERS B-1 v. DEVON ENERGY PRODUCTION CO.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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URBAN OIL & GAS PARTNERS B-1 v. DEVON ENERGY PRODUCTION CO., 2019 OK CIV APP 54 (Okla. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

URBAN OIL & GAS PARTNERS B-1 v. DEVON ENERGY PRODUCTION CO.
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URBAN OIL & GAS PARTNERS B-1 v. DEVON ENERGY PRODUCTION CO.
2019 OK CIV APP 54
Case Number: 116867; Comp w/116868
Decided: 02/12/2019
Mandate Issued: 10/16/2019
DIVISION II
THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA, DIVISION II


Cite as: 2019 OK CIV APP 54, __ P.3d __

URBAN OIL & GAS PARTNERS B-1, LP and URBAN FUND II, LP, Plaintiffs/Appellees,
v.
DEVON ENERGY PRODUCTION COMPANY, L.P., Defendant/Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF
KINGFISHER COUNTY, OKLAHOMA

HONORABLE ROBERT E. DAVIS, TRIAL JUDGE

AFFIRMED

Karl F. Hirsch, Glenn M. White, HIRSCH, HEATH & WHITE, PLLC, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Plaintiffs/Appellees

Bradley W. Welsh, GABLE & GOTWALS, Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Defendant/Appellant

P. THOMAS THORNBRUGH, JUDGE:

¶1 Defendant, Devon Energy Production Company. L.P. (Devon or Defendant), appeals from the trial court's grant of summary judgment and award of attorney fees in favor of Plaintiffs, Urban Oil & Gas Partners B-1, LP, and Urban Fund II, LP (Plaintiffs or Urban), in Plaintiffs' action to quiet title to Plaintiffs' interest in an oil and gas lease. This action is a companion with Case No. 116,868, a matter involving substantially identical facts alleged by Plaintiffs against Cimarex Energy Co., as Defendant, as to which we simultaneously issue our opinion today. Based on our review of the record and applicable law, we affirm the trial court's judgment and order.

BACKGROUND

¶2 This matter concerns ownership of certain "deep formation" drilling rights in an oil and gas lease known as the "Alig Lease" on minerals located in the SE/4 of Section 22, Township 15 North, Range 12 East, in Kingfisher County. Plaintiffs filed this action claiming they are the current owners of all rights associated with the Alig Lease and seeking to quiet title as against Defendant, which asserted an interest adverse to Plaintiffs in the deep formation rights. Plaintiffs also alleged they were entitled to attorney fees because, prior to filing suit, they submitted notice and a title curative document to Defendant pursuant to Oklahoma's Nonjudicial Marketable Title Procedures Act, 12 O.S.2011 §§ 1141.1 through 1141.5 ("NMTPA"), but Defendant had not responded.

¶3 Defendant admitted it claimed an interest in the Alig Lease as to mineral rights below 9,414 feet. It claimed that in 1991 Amoco Production Company (Amoco) -- a remote predecessor in interest of Plaintiffs -- made an "Assignment and Bill of Sale" of the Alig Lease to MW Petroleum Corporation1 (the "1991 Assignment"), which allegedly "limits the extent of the assignment [in the Alig Lease] from the surface to 9,414 feet in depth." Plaintiffs admit that their title derives from the 1991 Assignment, but assert the assignment was not limited in depth. All parties admit that in 1966 an entity that later became Amoco -- Pan American Petroleum Corporation (Pan American) -- entered into an Operating Agreement with Brookwood Oil Company as operator, and that the Operating Agreement was still in effect when the 1991 Assignment was made. The Operating Agreement covered all of Section 22 but was effective only as to geologic formations encountered from the earth's surface to 9,414 feet below the surface.

¶4 In relevant part, the 1991 Assignment, naming Amoco as Assignor, conveyed to MW as Assignee, the following:

A. All right, title and interest of Assignor in and to the oil and gas leases described on Exhibit "A" (attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes), insofar as said leases cover the lands which are specifically described in Exhibit "A" opposite the separate designation of each said lease, subject, however, to the depth limitations described on Exhibit "A" (the "Leases") and, as between the parties hereto, subject to any restrictions, exceptions, reservations, conditions, limitations, burdens, contracts, agreements and other matters applicable to such leases and interests;
All right, title and interest of Assignor in, to and under, or derived from, all presently existing and valid oil, gas or mineral unitization, pooling, operating and communitization agreements, declarations and orders, and in and to the properties covered and the units created thereby, which are appurtenant to the Leases;
All right, title and interest of Assignor in, to and under, or derived from, all presently existing and valid . . . operating agreements . . . insofar as the same are appurtenant to the Leases; . . . .

¶5 Attached as Exhibit "A" is a schedule of approximately 20 oil and gas leases located in Kingfisher County. The leases are listed by number, original lessor, original lessee, lease date, full legal description, and recordation book and page. The Alig Lease description appears on a page together with a lease known as the Elliot Lease, and is described as follows:

LEASE SCHEDULE

EXHIBIT "A" PAGE ONE OF ONE STATE OF OKLAHOMA COUNTY OF KINGFISHER

* * *
  RECORDED
LEASE NO. LESSOR LESSEE DATE DESCRIPTION BOOK PAGE

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2019 OK CIV APP 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/urban-oil-gas-partners-b-1-v-devon-energy-production-co-oklacivapp-2019.