Total E & P USA, Inc. v. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp.

DENNIS, Circuit Judge:1

This case involves a contractual interpretation dispute over whether overriding royalties are payable out of the initial oil and gas production from a tract of land on the outer continental shelf adjacent to Louisiana. In 1998, pursuant to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”),2 the United States issued a mineral lease of the tract to oil companies for mineral exploration. In 1999 and 2001, overriding royalty interests (“ORRI”) were carved out of the lessees’ working interest in all *428production and assigned to seven individuals referred to herein as the…