Case Study:  Coalbed Methane Ownership

Coalbed methane ownership disputes have frequently arisen between mineral owners.  We served as lead counsel for major oil and gas companies and large independents in first procuring legal opinions from the Department of the Interior on ownership issues and then in litigation establishing the general rule that coalbed gas is owned by the oil and gas rather than the coal owner.  See, e.g., Amoco Production Company v. Southern Ute Indian Tribe, 526 U.S. 865 (1999), aff’g, 874 F.Supp. 1142 (D. Colo. 1995); Rights to Coalbed Methane Under an Oil and Gas Lease for Lands in the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, 98 I.D. 59 (1990).