Description

This presentation will examine recent court decisions affecting producer royalty obligations in the Appalachian Basin. The discussion will highlight rulings addressing market enhancement clause leases, post-production cost allocation with overriding royalty interests, and the application of West Virginia’s Wellman/Tawney doctrine.

Ilya Batikov is a partner in Vorys’ Columbus office and a member of the firm’s energy, finance, and real estate group. His practice focuses primarily on oil and gas litigation. Ilya also counsels clients on oil and gas development, operations, and regulatory compliance.

Ilya’s litigation experience includes representing producers in a wide range of matters, including single-plaintiff and class action royalty suits; pooling and unitization disputes, claims involving Ohio’s Dormant Mineral Act and Marketable Title Act; and intra-business disputes at the trial and appellate levels. Ilya has also represented clients in regulatory proceedings before the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management and the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission.

Ilya authored three chapters for the LexisNexis treatise Hydraulic Fracturing Law and Practice. He is also a co-author of Equitable and Statute of Limitations Defenses to Lease Expiration Claims, 38 Energy & Min. L. Inst. 4 (2017), and was the lead author of Eight-Eighths of the Oil and Nine-Tenths of the Law—Adverse Possession By Oil and Gas Lessees, 69 Nat. Resources & Energy L. Inst. 15-1 (2023). Ilya regularly presents on oil and gas issues and contributes to the Vorys Energy & Environmental Law Blog. He is a member of the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation and the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation). He is a graduate of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law’s Oil and Gas Law Short Course and serves on the Foundation’s virtual education committee.

Ilya received his J.D., summa cum laude, from Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and his B.A., cum laude, from John Carroll University.