The Permian is a hotbed of deal activity, with the Dallas Morning News declaring that an “arms race” is breaking out to acquire the best acreage positions.

But what are purchasers really buying? Does the due diligence process move too fast (or not at all, making it an empty exercise)? Do purchasers really know that their title is good? Are they unknowingly wasting their money, only to discover that they have done so decades after the investment is made and the profits are owed to the true owner?

The Texas Supreme Court has now strongly moved to put the risk of title loss on the oil and gas interest purchaser or lessee, holding that a purchaser/lessee was not even entitled to a trial on the question of whether it had reasonably relied on the lessor’s own admitted misrepresentations about its title.

In an opinion delivered March 23, the court upheld the dismissal as a matter of law of the purchaser’s claims arising from title failure. In so doing, the court upended the rule that a seller always remains liable for its own fraudulent statements, instead placing the risk on sophisticated buyers. Read more