Assignment Reserves a Production Payment Only, Not a Production Payment and an Overriding Royalty Interest

摘要

A Tenth Circuit decision applying state law principles of contract interpretation offers an instructive lesson in the care that must go into the creation of nonoperating interests in oil and gas. QEP Energy Co. v. Sullivan, 444 F. App'x 284, 2011 WL 5085002 (10th Cir. 2011) (Sullivan Case). The dispute in this case is whether a reservation in an assignment of a federal oil and gas lease reserved a production payment, or both a production payment and an overriding royalty interest.