Jonathan A Hunter

Practice Details

• Firm Information
  Position

  Partner

  Firm Name

  Jones Walker LLP
• Representative Cases & Transactions
  Cases

  Representative Matters: Sample cases involving the federal oil
  gas leasing program include: Abbott v. BP, 851 F.3d 384 (5th Cir. 2017) (defeated qui tam claim for more than $70 billion alleging that federal lessee had falsely certified to compliance with regulatory engineering st
  ards for the semi-submersible Atlantis platform)
  Oceana v. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42656
  44 ELR 20070 (D.D.C. 2014) (held that environmental reviews conducted in conjunction with Gulf of Mexico Lease Sales 218
  216/222 complied with the Endangered Species Act, NEPA,
  the APA).
  Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Salazar, No. 2:11-cv-01474 (W.D. La.) (settled) (challenging final Department of the Interior decision denying request for suspension of production for deep water unit
  potentially canceling leases with billions of dollars of crude oil reserves)
  Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp. v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior, 554 F.3d 1082 (5th Cir. 2009) (argued) (held that Interior could not enforce price threshold clauses in offshore federal leases because those clauses violated the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act
  established a precedent valued by the Department of the Interior as saving industry more than $30 billion in royalty payments)
  United States ex. rel. Little v. Eni Petroleum, Co., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61942 (W.D. Okla. 2007) (dismissed federal royalty qui tam action).
  Santa Fe Snyder Corp. v. Norton, 385 F.3df 884 (5th Cir. 2004) (argued) (held that Interior could not enforce regulations that imposed volumetric limitations on deep water royalty relief because those regulations violated the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act
  established a precedent valued by Interior as saving industry more than $5 billion in royalty payments)
  Shell Offshore Inc. v. Babbitt, 238 F.3d 622 (5th Cir. 2001) (reversed final Department of the Interior decision disallowing tariff-based transportation allowances).
  Sample cases involving state law oil
  gas issues include: Guilbeau v. Hess Corp., 854 F.3d 310 (5th Cir. 2017) (argued) (upholding the application of Louisiana's subsequent purchaser doctrine in oilfield contamination dispute)
  Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Hinton, 225 Fed. Appx. 332 (5th Cir. 2007) (argued) (defeated claim that Louisiana mineral servitude had prescribed)