La. Appeals Court Supports Landowners’ Claim of Error in Lease Extension

SHREVEPORT, La. — A Louisiana appellate court has concluded that a minerals lease extension applies only to an undeveloped portion of the acreage, as the landowners argued in complaining of “mutual error” in the negotiations, and does not give the drilling company “deep rights” to a shale formation beneath depths accessed during the lease’s primary term. Peironnet v. Matador Resources Co., No. 47, 190-CA (La. Ct. App., 2nd Cir.).

In an Aug. 1 opinion, Louisiana’s Second Circuit Court of Appeal cited language in the original lease’s “Pugh” clause, allowing for continued drilling rights beyond the primary term on acreage already …