Amarillo Court of Appeals Rejects Partial-Lease-Termination Claims

In XOG Operating, LLC v. Chesapeake Expl. Ltd. P'ship, the assignor of a leasehold-assignment contract asserted that the assignee's leasehold rights had partially terminated based on the contract's retained-acreage clause.  That clause stated that at the end of the assignee's continuous-development operations, the transferred rights terminated except for those rights associated with acreage in a "proration unit," which "shall mean the area within the surface boundaries of the proration unit then established or prescribed by field rules or special order of the appropriate regulatory authority for the reservoir in which each well is completed."  The assignee argued that each producing well retained the number of acres in a prescribed proration unit under Railroad Commission's field rules, and the court of appeals agreed.  XOG Operating, LLC v. Chesapeake Expl. Ltd. P'ship., 480 S.W.3d 22 (Tex. App.--Amarillo 2015, pet. filed). 

Chesapeake's Brief on the Merits
Court of Appeals's Opinion