Roughly 15 years ago, many Pennsylvania landowners entered into oil and gas leases in the expectation of receiving royalties for the extraction of shale gas and oil underlying their properties.
Continue Reading Is the Oil and Gas Lease Over? Court Ruling Offers Guidance
On April 29, 2021, Administrator Michael Regan announced that EPA plans to add Natural Gas Processing (NGP) facilities to the list of industries subject to Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting
Continue Reading EPA Will Finalize Rule Imposing Toxics Release Inventory Reporting Requirements on Natural Gas Processing Facilities
Jordan W. Cowman and Robert J. Downing, shareholders of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, will participate in the virtual Columbia Business School: Guyana – Suriname Conference Series
Continue Reading Jordan Cowman and Robert Downing to Speak at Columbia Business School: Guyana – Suriname Conference Series
Four attorneys from the Energy & Natural Resources Practice at global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, were recognized in the 2021 edition of the prestigious legal services directory Chambers
Continue Reading Greenberg Traurig’s Energy & Natural Resources Attorneys, Mexico Practice Recognized by 2021 Chambers Global
On Dec. 26, 2020, Mexico’s Ministry of Energy (SENER) published in the Federal Official Gazette (DOF), a resolution that establishes the goods for which import and export activities are subject
Continue Reading Amendments to Regulations for Import/Export of Hydrocarbons and Hydrocarbon Products in Mexico
Last month, I wrote about the “Environmental Justice for All Act,” a bill that proposes a finding that vulnerable populations are disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards. New Jersey is
Continue Reading New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Legislation: The Focus on Major Source Permit Applications Might Impact Property Values
On Feb. 19, 2020, the IRS released Notice 2020-12 and Revenue Procedure 2020-12 (together, the “Carbon Guidance”) which provide highly anticipated clarity on the Internal Revenue Code Section 45Q credit
On Feb. 19, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service released partial guidance on the implementation of section 45Q tax credits related to the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide. The section 45Q tax credit was updated on Feb. 9, 2018, as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act (Pub. L. 115-123) to increase the amount of the tax credit per ton and to broaden the applicability to include “qualified carbon oxide.” The new IRS guidance is designed to assist in implementing the modified law.
The 2018 law removed the volume cap applicable to the tax credit, expanded the definition to include not just carbon dioxide but other carbon oxides such as methane, and raised the amount of the tax credit per ton. Carbon oxides captured and used for enhanced oil recovery can now receive a tax credit of up to $35 per ton, while carbon oxides deposited in secure geological storage can receive a tax credit of up to $50 per ton.
Continue Reading IRS Takes First Steps to Implement Carbon Capture Tax Credit
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that appeared to make the “rule of capture” inapplicable to oil and gas wells subjected to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Briggs v. Sw. Energy Production Co., No. 63 MAP 2018 (Pa. Jan. 22, 2020) (see majority opinion; see concurring and dissenting opinion). However, the court has left open whether a well owner whose hydraulic fracturing fluids or proppants migrate under a property line, and perhaps even a well owner whose fracture traces extend across that line, has committed a trespass. Those issues are remanded, and their resolution remains uncertain.
Oil and gas (or, for that matter, any fluids) migrate into a well bore from the surrounding rock. If the well drains a conventional reservoir, the hydrocarbons may have originated at the other end of the reservoir under a different property. A well on one property can drain hydrocarbons originally located under another. Recall the “I drink your milkshake” scene from There Will Be Blood (Paramount 2007).
Continue Reading Rule of Capture is Back for Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Wells . . . Sort Of
On Nov. 8, 2019, the Office of Fossil Energy (FE) of the Department of Energy (DOE) issued DOE/FE Order Nos. 4461 and 4462 (the Orders) authorizing GT client SpotX Energy,
Continue Reading LNG Export: DOE Authorizes a New Business Model Under Its Small-Scale Export Rule