Questar Exploration & Production Co. v. Rocky Mountain Resources, LLC
Annotate this CaseIn 1951, the State issued two oil and gas leases covering land in Sublette County. One of these leases (the 505 Lease) covered 160 acres, and the other lease (the 529 Lease) covered 480 acres. The leases were later assigned to Continental Oil Company, and the assignor, Walter Davis, reserved a four percent overriding royalty interest in both leases. Davis’s mineral interests were later awarded to Robert Floyd. In 1979, after the 505 and 529 Leases terminated and the acreage was combined into a single parcel, the State granted Dr. Robert Ribbe Lease 79-0645, which covered all 640 acres. In 2011, Robert Floyd filed suit, arguing that Davis’s four percent overriding royal interest should have attached to the Ribbe Lease. The district court concluded that Appellants, QEP Energy Company and Wexpro Company, were liable for more than thirty million dollars in unpaid royalties. The district court denied Appellants’ motion for a new trial. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Ribbe lease was not a renewal lease, substitute lease, or new lease issued in lieu of the 505 and 529 Leases, and therefore, the overriding royalty interest did not attach to the Ribbe Lease.
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