We wanted to make you aware of several recent oil, gas, and energy decisions:
- FERC v. Elec. Power Supply Ass’n, ___ U.S. ___, 2016 U.S. LEXIS 853 (Jan. 25, 2016)—The United States Supreme Court held that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had authority to regulate wholesale market operators’ compensation of demand response bids, and that FERC’s compensation formula was not arbitrary or capricious.
- McLaughlin v. CNX Gas Co., 6th Cir. No. 14-3102, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 1138 (Jan. 22, 2016)—The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its first decision considering the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (ODMA). Relying on the Supreme Court of Ohio’s recent decision in Chesapeake v. Buell, the court found that a severed mineral interest was not abandoned under the ODMA because an oil and gas lease covering the severed mineral interest was a “title transaction” and therefore, acted as a “savings event.”
- Castro v. Positron Energy Res., Inc., 2016-Ohio-285 (4th Dist.) (Jan. 7, 2016)—Ohio’s Fourth District Court of Appeals concluded that (i) an oil and gas lease entered into in 1980 terminated pursuant to its terms when there was no production in paying quantities for more than seven years; and (ii) a demand by the lessor in 2013 that the lessee remit delay rentals, and the lessee’s remittance of such delay rentals, did not cure the forfeiture or estop the lessor from asserting it.