Ever since Beaumont became a boomtown in the early 1900s, oil and gas exploration has been big business in Texas. And when business booms, litigation often follows. As a result, Texas courts have developed a rich and unbroken oil and gas jurisprudence for over a century.
Other states—particularly in Appalachia—have recently experienced booms of their own, often after decades of inactivity. For example, though Pennsylvania was an energy hub in the John D. Rockefeller era, more than a century passed before it was back on the map with the development of the Marcellus Shale. So while oil and gas litigation is now back on the Appalachian court dockets, gaps in the jurisprudence can be a trap for the unwary. What follows is an outline of some of those potential traps.
