Buttes Gas & Oil Co. v. The Willard Pease Drilling Co.

SETH, Circuit Judge.

This action was brought by the operator under a unit agreement contemplating the development for oil and gas of an area in Utah. The defendant was a working interest owner and a party to the operating agreement. Defendant was also a drilling contractor who was engaged to drill the well in question.

By its complaint the plaintiff-operator sought to recover from the defendant fifty per cent of the cost incurred by the plaintiff in drilling the first or test well pursuant to the unit agreement. This fifty per cent was the percentage interest of defendant in the test well, and…