No. Not in Texas.
Coastal Oil and Gas Corp v Garza Energy Trust 268 SW 3rd 1
held that the rule of capture precludes the mineral owners claim of damages for hydraulic fractures that extend across a lease line from a well bore located at a legal location.
Long story short, Coastal drilled a well whose bore was 467' from Garza's property. They fraced the well and the fracs extended into Garza's property and caused the gas to flow from the Garza property to the Coastal wellbore.
What about a situation where the wellbore is in a legal location and causes damages to a well on the offsetting tract? The implication of this ruling is that as long as the actions are within the RRC rules and regulations, the actor is protected. Amazing ruling.
This is not a contra-indication to the Neel case. In HECI v Neel, the actor overproduced their well and caused formation damage. The ignoring of RRC rules is what gave the cause of action.
Beware of oil companies wanting Rule 37 exceptions on horizontal wellbores. That gives them a license to steal based on the holding in this case.
There are remedies if you are under lease, such as the implied obligation to protect from drainage, or in good lease forms, express offset provisions.
