When oil companies transfer oil property among themselves, they frequently do so by an assignment of lease rights. Sometimes they assign all their interest under a lease, but they often assign just a portion of the lease, or reserve some interest in the property. In the event of multiple assignments — such as when party A assigns to party B, who assigns to party C, and so on — there can be confusion about what was assigned, and who is obligated to do what.

This kind of controversy set the stage for the recent decision by the North Dakota Supreme Court captioned Golden v. SM Energy Co., 2013 ND 17, Feb. 1, 2013. The Golden decision presents an interesting discussion about royalty payments, division orders and assigned obligations. Does this case portend what can happen in Ohio? Only for companies that do not learn from mistakes made in other states.
Continue Reading When Is an Assignment of a Lease not an Assignment of Obligations?