Railroad Commission of Texas v. Rowan Oil Co.

This case reaches us as a direct appeal from the judgment of a trial court upon the validity of a Railroad Commission order.

The Spraberry oil trend stretches through five West Texas counties. The Commission by order established the entire trend as one field for administrative purposes. Oil is produced along with a great volume of casinghead gas. The prevention of the waste of gas is a well established public policy of the State of Texas. A second well established public policy is the protection of the correlative rights of all owners in a field so that each receives his fair share of the oil…