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Upstream Disputes Series Blog Post #4 Upstream oil and gas disputes are frequently described as battles over geology, valuation, or environmental policy. In reality, many of them are decided long before those substantive issues are ever reached. They are decided on questions of forum, venue, administrative record, and standard of review. Where a case is filed. Which court hears it. What record is preserved. What deference applies. These procedural factors often shape the traj

Upstream Disputes Series Blog Post # 3 Upstream oil and gas disputes are not limited to royalty calculations and audit methodology. Increasingly, they arise from a more fundamental conflict: who controls the development of mineral estates when state regulation intersects with federally authorized leases. Recent litigation surrounding California’s 3,200-foot setback law, commonly referred to as SB 1137, illustrates this structural tension. The disputes now unfolding raise cons

Upstream Disputes Series Blog Post #2 In upstream oil and gas disputes, royalty litigation rarely turns on dramatic factual revelations. More often, it turns on methodology, transportation allowances, affiliate pricing, cost allocation formulas, index selection, and the application of regulatory caps. These disputes are not glamorous. They are highly technical, accounting-driven, and governed by complex federal regulations. Yet they frequently involve millions of dollars in e

Upstream Disputes Series Blog Post #1 Federal oil and gas royalty disputes rarely begin in a courtroom. They begin in accounting entries, transportation allowance calculations, and internal spreadsheets that, at first glance, appear technical and routine. Yet those spreadsheets often form the foundation for some of the most consequential financial disputes in the upstream oil and gas industry. Why This Matters for Royalty Dispute Resolution Disputes involving federal oil and