W.a. Moncrief, Jr., Appellant (plaintiff) v. the Louisiana Land and Exploration Company; Bhp Petroleum Company…

Summary

On rehearing, the Wyoming Supreme Court withdrew its original opinion reversing summary judgment and affirmed the district court's declaratory judgment in favor of non-consenting working interest owners. The court held that under the unambiguous Supplemental Unit Operating Agreement, the majority-minority determination for selecting the non-consent penalty must be made when the ten-day second election period expires, not when the well is spudded in. Because Moncrief and Yates had only an unexercised option under a farmout agreement that was not yet in existence at the critical date, Amoco's 160-acre tract could not be counted as consenting, leaving the consenting parties a minority in interest.