Oil, Gas, & Energy Law

Since returning to private practice in 2008 after a six-year stint as an Assistant Solicitor General for the State of Texas, Ryan Clinton has practiced appellate law primarily in the oil, gas, and energy arena.  Ryan and his colleagues at Davis, Gerald & Cremer have developed a deep understanding of the novel and complex legal challenges facing the Texas oil-and-gas industry, and Ryan's appellate experience continues to benefit the firm and its energy clients.  Ryan has represented clients in a wide variety of oil, gas, and energy disputes on subjects including retained-acreage clauses, lease-termination claims, farmout agreements, surface-estate usage, trespass, executive rights, royalty disputes, property damage, personal injury, and arbitration appeals. 

Ryan's successful representation of oil-and-gas interests in the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas courts of appeals, and Texas trial courts includes:

• Reversal and rendition of take-nothing judgment in favor of oil-and-gas lessee in a well-accident case decided under Chapter 95 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Energen Resources Corp. v. Wallace, No. 20-0451 (Tex. 2022).

• Victory in the Texas Supreme Court in a dispute over the meaning of an in-kind royalty clause within a deed creating a non-participating royalty interest (“NPRI”). Nettye Engler Energy, LP v. BlueStone Natural Resources II, LLC, No. 20-0638 (Tex. 2022).

• Victories in two retained-acreage-clause cases in the Texas Supreme Court. Endeavor Energy Resources, L.P. v. Discovery Operating, Inc., 554 S.W.3d 586 (Tex. 2018); XOG Operating, LLC v. Chesapeake Exploration Ltd. P’ship, 554 S.W.3d 607 (Tex. 2018).

• The reversal of a multi-million dollar award and rendition of a take-nothing judgment in a lease-termination dispute involving a farmout agreement. Clayton Williams Energy, Inc. v. BMT O&G TX, L.P., 473 S.W.3d 341 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2015, pet. denied).

• The vacatur of a $125,000,000.00 arbitration award based on “evident partiality.” Tenaska Energy, Inc. v. Ponderosa Pine Energy LLC, 437 S.W.3d 518 (Tex. 2014).

• Affirmance of take-nothing judgment for defendant in high-dollar dispute over alleged horizontal severance or partial termination of oil-and-gas leasehold rights. Community Bank of Raymore v. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C. & Anadarko Petroleum Corp., 416 S.W.3d 750 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2013, no pet.).

• The reversal of a judgment and rendition of a take-nothing judgment in a pair of novel lawsuits involving disputed executive rights. Chesapeake Exploration L.L.C. v. BNW Property Co., 393 S.W.3d 852 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2012, pet. denied); Anadarko Petroleum Corp. v. BNW Property Co., 393 S.W.3d 846 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2012, pet. denied).

• The reversal of a multi-million dollar award and rendition of a take-nothing judgment in a gas-royalties dispute potentially affecting hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties. Occidental Permian Ltd. v. Helen Jones Foundation, 333 S.W.3d 392 (Tex. App.—Amarillo 2011, pet. denied).

Ryan's success has not gone unnoticed by his peers, and he has repeatedly been asked to contribute to continuing-legal education seminars.  His oil-and-gas scholarship includes:

• Estate Misconception & Presumed Grant: Navigating Mineral-Ownership Disputes After Van Dyke, University of Texas School of Law, 50th Annual Ernest E. Smith Oil, Gas & Mineral Law Institute, April 2024 (co-authored with Laine Weatherford Schmelzer)

• Agony of the 1/8th: The Consistently Inconsistent Role of “Estate Misconception” and the “Legacy of the 1/8th Royalty” in Texas Deed Construction Precedent, State Bar of Texas Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Section Report, March 2022

• Forgive Us Our Trespass Law, State Bar of Texas, Oil and Gas Disputes, January 2020

• The End of the Leasehold as We Know It: Termination, Forfeiture, & Repudiation, State Bar of Texas, Oil and Gas Disputes, January 11, 2019.

• To Drill or Not to Drill: The Repudiation Doctrine, State Bar of Texas, Advanced Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Law CLE, September 2017.

• Revisiting an Old Friend: Retained-Acreage Clauses in Oil-and-Gas Contracts, State Bar of Texas, 34th Annual Advanced Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Law CLE, September 2016.

• Oil & Gas Damages, State Bar of Texas, 7th Annual Damages in Civil Litigation CLE, February 2015.

Ryan Clinton can be reached by e-mail at rdclinton@dgclaw.com or by phone at 512.493.9600.