Wind Energy Agreements in Oklahoma
Consider this scenario: it is shortly after the turn of the century, and Oklahoma is buzzing about a new industry in the state that will take what were previously thought to be marginal lands and extract a resource that will be used to power the entire nation. However, the industry is new to many Oklahomans, and there remain many issues, technological and legal, that are still to be resolved. Optimism at the fortunes to be made overnight is tempered by uncertainty as to how the industry will eventually impact the state.

The Oil and Gas Lease in Oklahoma: A Primer
Oklahoma has the second most crude oil wells of any state in the United States, and the third most natural-gas wells.  Oklahoma is also the third-leading producer of natural gas and the seventh-leading producer of crude oil among the United States and federal offshore territories.Given these numbers, the likelihood that an Oklahoma attorney will encounter an oil and gas lease in practice is high. Yet, oil and gas leases present unique legal issues, and the law governing their execution, duration and interpretation is distinct from ordinary principles of property law or contract law.

The SemGroup Bankruptcy and the Ramifications for Oklahoma Producers
On July 22, 2008, SemGroup LP, the parent entity of the various SemGroup subsidiaries, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, even as the price of crude oil was in excess of $140 per barrel.As a major purchaser of production from Oklahoma oil and gas producers, SemGroup’s bankruptcy thrust a host of unresolved legal issues into the limelight. Of those issues, perhaps none were more relevant and pressing than 1) the level of priority given to the hundreds of producers who sold to SemGroup prior to its bankruptcy; and 2) whether Oklahoma’s Oil and Gas Owners’ Lien Act permits an operator to file a lien on behalf of all interest owners. As such matters would be implicated in any future bankruptcy filing by a purchaser of production affecting Oklahoma producers, this article will address each of these important topics in detail.

The Oklahoma Surface Damage Act
Oklahoma has been producing oil and gas since its territorial days and has a rich body of oil and gas law in its statutes, regulations and case law. However, record-high oil prices in recent years and recent discoveries of new formations have unleashed a flurry of new oil and gas activity across the state, even into areas that had seen little such activity in the past (and even though these prices are well below those record levels as this article goes to press, there is also wide speculation that increases in global demand will place upward pressure on prices in the future). As a result, many practitioners may be facing issues of oil and gas law for the first time. Thus, this article will present a very basic overview of one of the fundamental pieces of Oklahoma’s oil and gas law: the Oklahoma Surface Damage Act.