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93 Denver L. Rev. F. 1 (2015-2016)

handle is hein.journals/dnvrlwfv93 and id is 1 raw text is: ENTEK GRB, LLC v. STULL RANCHES, LLC: UPHOLDING THE DOMINANCE OF THE MINERAL ESTATE INTRODUCTION Entek GRB, LLC v. Stull Ranches, LLC' addressed a common dis- pute in the western United States-a dispute between the surface owner and the mineral owner of a severed estate. As Judge Gorsuch articulated in Entek: When you own property in the West you don't always own everything from the surface to the center of the Earth. Someone else might own the minerals lying underground and the right to access them. Someone else still might own the right to use the water flowing through your property. All this can invite confusion-and litigation.2 A severed estate occurs when different parties own the surface rights and minerals rights on a single parcel of land.3 Severed estates are generally the result of the federal government reserving the mineral rights from land patents or private parties granting or reserving mineral interests.4 The mineral estate is generally considered the dominant estate, which allows its owner to reasonably use the surface estate to develop the minerals underlying the property.5 There are limits on the mineral estate's dominance, however, through principles such as the accommoda- tion doctrine.6 Another key component of Entek was that the mineral rights to the parcels in question had been joined together through a concept called unitization.7 Unitization is a method of conservation that the oil and gas industry uses to prevent waste.8 Some commentators have suggested that it is the best method of conservation.9 Unitization combines multiple tracts of land with separate owners overlying all or part of a common mineral reservoir for joint recovery operations.10 Generally, the working 1. 763 F.3d 1252 (10th Cir. 2014). 2. Id. at 1253. 3. Andrew C. Mergen, Surface Tension: The Problem of Federal/Private Split Estate Lands, 33 LAND & WATER L. REV. 419, 423 (1998). 4. Robert B. Witwer, Tension Beneath the Surface: The Evolving Relationship Between Surface and Mineral Estates, 30 COLO. LAW. 67, 67 (2001). 5. Mergen, supra note 3, at 432. 6. Id. at 433. 7. Entek GRB, LLC v. Stull Ranches, LLC, 763 F.3d 1252, 1255 (10th Cir. 2014) (explain- ing that the Focus Ranch Unit Agreement includes the relevant potions of Stull's surface estate and BLM's land). 8. Owen L. Anderson & Ernest B. Smith, III, The Use of Law to Promote Domestic Explora- tion and Production, in Fiftieth Annual Institute on Oil and Gas Law and Taxation 2-1, 2-64 to 2-65 (Carol J. Holgren ed., 1999). 9. Id. at 2-64. 10. JOHN S. LOWE ET AL., CASES AND MATERIALS ON OIL AND GAS LAW 752 (6th ed. 2013). 1