Keith B. Hall

Biography

Keith B. Hall is the Nesser Family Chair in Energy Law, Campanile Charities Professor of Energy Law, and John P. Laborde Endowed Professorship in Energy Law 3 and 4. He is also Director of the John P. Laborde Energy Law Center and Director of the Mineral Law Institute. He teaches Mineral Rights, International Petroleum Transactions, Energy Law & Regulation, and Civil Law Property.  His publications have focused on oil and gas leases, pooling and unitization, hydraulic fracturing, induced seismicity, and the management of produced water.  He is co-author of three books—a national oil and gas casebook that is used in law schools, a book on legal issues relating to hydraulic fracturing that is published by the American Bar Association, and the leading textbook on international petroleum law and transactions.  He is a frequent speaker at national and international oil and gas, energy, and environmental law conferences, and is one of the editors on a book on international oil and gas decommissioning regulations.  In addition to teaching at LSU, he has taught energy law classes as a visiting professor at Baku State University in Azerbaijan, as a Visiting Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and as an adjunct professor at Loyola School of Law (New Orleans). Before joining the LSU Law Center’s faculty, he was a member of the firm Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann in New Orleans, where he practiced law for 16 years, with a focus on oil and gas litigation and transactions, environmental law, and toxic tort litigation.

Professor Hall is Editor-in-Chief of the Institute for Energy Law’s Oil & Gas E-Report, and he serves as a member of the Trustees Council of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation), the Board of Trustees of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation, and the Educational Advisory Board of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators. He is a former Chair of the Louisiana State Bar Association's Environmental Law Section and former Chair of the Oil & Gas Committee of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. He serves on the Louisiana Law Institute’s Water Law Committee and is a registered professional engineer (license status, inactive).

Selected Publications

Books and Book Chapters

The Law of Oil and Gas: Cases and Materials, co-authored with Patrick H. Martin, et al. (Foundation Press) (11th Ed. 2022 and 10th Ed. 2016)

International Petroleum Law and Transactions, with Owen L. Anderson, et al., (Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation) (2020)

The Regulation of Decommissioning, Abandonment and Reuse Initiatives in the Oil and Gas Industry, (author of chapter on U.S. regulations and one of five editors of the book) (Wolters Kluwer 2020)

Hydraulic Fracturing: A Guide to Environmental and Real Property Issues, co-authored with Hannah J. Wiseman (American Bar Association 2017)

“Petroleum,” Chapter 1 of Volume 1 of Energy Choices: How to Power the Future (Praeger 2014)

“Discovery,” Chapter 12 of Louisiana Civil Practice Forms (West, updated annually)

“Louisiana's Mineral Resources,” Chapter 1 of Louisiana Mineral Law Treatise (Claitor's Publishing Division 2012)

Law Review and Peer Reviewed Articles

Carbon Capture and Storage: Models for Compensating Non-consenting Landowners, 14 San Diego J. Climate & Energy L. 39 (2023)

Reconciling Property Rights with Carbon Capture and Storage, 10 Belmont L. Rev. 382 (2023)

2022 Survey on Oil & Gas Law—Louisiana, 8 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 275 (2022)

President Biden’s Executive Orders Relating to Oil and Gas, The Baton Rouge Lawyer, Vol. 4, Issue 4, p. 4 (July/August 2021)

2021 Survey on Oil & Gas Law—Louisiana, 7 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 363 (2021)

Ruminations on the Continuing Evolution of Trespass Law in the Context of Mineral Development, 8 La. St. U. J. Energy L. & Resources 505 (2020)

Decommissioning of Offshore Oil and Gas Facilities in the United States, 14 Charleston L. Rev. 437 (2020)

2020 Survey on Oil & Gas Law—Louisiana, 6 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 57 (2020)

Dutch Disease and the Resource Curse, International Mining and Oil & Gas Law, Development and Investment, 4-1 (Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Fdn. 2019) (co-authored with Stephanos G. Oretis, Peter Leon, Aaron O’Connell, and Julia La Manna)

Implied Covenants and the Drafting of Oil and Gas Leases, 7 La. St. U. J. Energy L. & Resources 401 (2019)

An International Comparison on the Operatorship Provisions Contained in Model Form Oil & Gas Joint Operating Agreements, 7 La. St. U. J. Energy L. & Resources 79 (2019)

Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage in the Louisiana Chemical Corridor (with David E. Dismukes and others) (2019) United States, available at https://doi.org/10.2172/1526406

2019 Survey on Oil & Gas Law—Louisiana, 5 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 27 (2019)

Defining the Lessee’s Covenants to Drill and Develop a Lease, Special Inst. on Drafting the Modern Oil and Gas Lease (Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Fdn. 2018)

2018 Survey on Oil & Gas Law—Louisiana, 4 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 31 (2018)

2017 Survey on Oil & Gas Law—Louisiana, 3 Tex. A&M J. Prop. L. 17 (2017)

The Operator Under Oil and Gas Joint Operating Agreement—The Three Rs of Responsibilities, Removal, and Replacement, Special Institute on Joint Operations and the New AAPL Form 610-2015 Model Form Operating Agreement (Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Fdn. and A.A.P.L. 2016)

Hydraulic Fracturing Impact Studies: Recent Highlights, Summaries, and Analysis, Special Institute on Water Acquisition and Management for Oil & Gas Development: Legal and Regulatory Requirements (Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn. and CAIL-IEL 2016) (with Scott Anderson of Environmental Defense Fund)

Induced Seismicity: An Energy Lawyer’s Guide to Legal Issues and the Causes of Man-Made Earthquakes, Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Sixty-First Annual Institute (2015)

On Liability Issues Concerning Induced Seismicity in Hydraulic Fracturing Treatments and at Injection Disposal Wells: What Petroleum Engineers Should Know (with Arash Dahi Taleghani), Hydraulic Fracturing Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 69-75 (June 2015)

Hydraulic Fracturing: If Fractures Cross Property Lines is there an Actionable Subsurface Trespass?, 54 Nat. Res. J. 361 (Fall 2014)

Using Technology to Avoid Trespass Liability Based on Subsurface Intrusions of Hydraulic Fractures (with Arash Dahi Taleghani), Hydraulic Fracturing Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 38-45 (Oct. 2014)

Hydraulic Fracturing and the Baseline Testing of Groundwater, 48 U. Rich. L. Rev. 857 (2014)

2014 Survey on Oil & Gas Law: Louisiana, 1 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 103 (2014)

Hydraulic Fracturing Contamination Claims: Problems of Proof, 74 Ohio St. L.J. Furthermore 71 (2013)

Hydraulic Fracturing: Trade Secrets and the Mandatory Disclosure of Fracturing Water Composition, 49 Idaho L. Rev. 399 (2013)

Recent Developments in Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation and Litigation, 29 J. Land Use & Env. L. 29 (2013)

Louisiana Oil & Gas Update, 19 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 361 (2013)

When Do State Oil and Gas or Mining Statutes Preempt Local Regulations?, 27 Natural Resources & Environment 16 (Winter 2013)

Fraud, Misrepresentation, and Related Ethical Issues in Lease Acquisition, Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Fifty-Eighth Annual Institute (2012)

Hydraulic Fracturing and the Safe Drinking Water Act, 19 Buffalo Envir. L.J. (2011-2012)

Professional Activities

Member, Task Force on Local Impacts of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (created Senate Resolution No. 179 of 2023 Regular Session of Louisiana Legislature)

Chair, Emerging Energy Industries Codification Task Force (created by Senate Resolution No. 161 of 2022 Regular Session of Louisiana Legislature)

Member, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources Ad Hoc Committee on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage

Member, Risk Charge Commission (created by Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 44 of the 2021 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature to study possible changes to Louisiana’s oil and gas risk charge statute

Editor-in-Chief, Institute for Energy Law’s Oil & Gas E-Report (2018 to date)

Louisiana Law Institute, member of Oil & Gas Risk Fee Statute Committee

Louisiana Law Institute, member of Mineral Law Committee

Louisiana Law Institute, Reporter for committee studying alternative dispute resolution systems for oilfield contamination claims (committee’s recommendations adopted with minor revisions by La. Legislature in 2015)

Louisiana Law Institute, member of committee studying possible reforms relating to unsolicited offers by mail for purchase of mineral rights

Louisiana Law Institute, Water Law Committee

Louisiana Cross Unit Well Study Commission, member (Commission established by legislature to propose legislation; Commission’s recommendation adopted by legislature in 2015)