Osage County landowner Merrill Chance has scored a partial victory in his lawsuit to stop an energy company from drilling for oil and gas on his land.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling against Chance who filed suit against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and Great Southwestern Exploration Inc. of Nichols Hills.
Chance’s suit also sought damages from the energy company for trespassing on his property. The lower court ruled his claims against the government were untimely under federal law. The federal appeals court agreed the claims were untimely but also said the lower court wrongly concluded it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the claims.
So it reversed the court’s order dismissing the suit against the government. But it also upheld the lower court ruling dismissing the claims against Great Southwestern Exploration.
Like all oil and gas exploration in Osage county, the case centered on the Osage Nation’s control of all minerals in the county. Chance had wells on his land that were drilled by the Eason Oil Company in 1964. But in 1991, Eason assigned the lease to Great Southwestern Exploration which drilled three new wells that same year. Two remain in operation and in October 2016, 25 years later, Chance filed his lawsuit.
His original suit argued the Osage Agency failed to follow the National Environmental Policy Act which required it to carry out site-specific environmental impact assessments before approving Eason’s assignment to Great Southwestern Exploration.