Jonathan A.

Hunter

• The Best Lawyers in America (2007–2018)
• Benchmark Litigation, Local Litigation Star (2018)
• New Orleans Magazine, Top Lawyer (listed annually since 2015)
• Corporate Live Wire, Lawyer of the Year, New Orleans Energy & Natural Resources (2014)
• Best Lawyers, "Lawyer of the Year," New Orleans Energy Law (2013 and 2016)
• Louisiana Super Lawyers, Energy & Natural Resources (listed annually since 2008)
• Chambers USA, Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas (listed annually since 2005)

Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Program

• W&T Offshore, Inc. v. Bernhardt, 946 F.3d 227 (2019) (argued), held that Interior’s method of resolving royalty-in-kind delivery imbalances violated the Administrative Procedure Act; established a precedent authorizing a federal lessee to receive credit for royalty overpayments based on the doctrine of equitable recoupment

• Abbott v. BP, 851 F.3d 384 (5th Cir. 2017), defeated qui tam claim for more than $70 billion alleging that a federal lessee had falsely certified to compliance with regulatory engineering standards for the semi-submersible Atlantis platform
• Oceana v. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42656; 44 ELR 20070 (D.D.C. 2014), held that environmental reviews conducted in conjunction with Gulf of Mexico Lease Sales 218 and 216/222 complied with the Endangered Species Act, NEPA, and the APA
• Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Salazar, No. 2:11-cv-01474 (W.D. La.) (settled), challenging the final Department of the Interior decision denying a request for suspension of production for a deep water unit and potentially canceling leases with billions of dollars of crude oil reserves
• Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp. v. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior, 554 F.3d 1082 (5th Cir. 2009) (argued), held that the Department of the Interior could not enforce “price threshold” clauses in offshore federal leases because those clauses violated the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act; established a precedent valued by the Department of the Interior as saving the industry more than $30 billion in royalty payments
• United States ex. rel. Little v. Eni Petroleum, Co., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61942 (W.D. Okla. 2007), (dismissed federal royalty qui tam action)
• Santa Fe Snyder Corp. v. Norton, 385 F.3d 884 (5th Cir. 2004) (argued), held that the Department of the Interior could not enforce regulations that imposed volumetric limitations on deep water royalty relief because those regulations violated the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act; established a precedent valued by the Department of the Interior as saving the industry more than $5 billion in royalty payments
• Shell Offshore Inc. v. Babbitt, 238 F.3d 622 (5th Cir. 2001), reversed the final Department of the Interior decision disallowing tariff-based transportation allowances
• BP Exploration & Prod. Inc. v. United States, 147 Fed. Cl. 623 (Ct. Cl. 2019) (holding that ONRR erroneously applied the six-year “adjustment period” under 30 U.S.C. 1721a(a)(4), rather than the seven-year period under 30 U.S.C. 1724(b), to a demand for refund of overpaid royalties submitted pursuant to 30 U.S.C. 1721a(b)), appeal No. 20-1832 (Fed. Cir.) dismissed on 9/25/2020

Oil and Gas

• Guilbeau v. Hess Corp., 854 F.3d 310 (5th Cir. 2017) (argued), upholding the application of Louisiana’s “subsequent purchaser doctrine” in an oilfield contamination dispute
• Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Hinton, 225 Fed. Appx. 332 (5th Cir. 2007) (argued), defeated a claim that a Louisiana mineral servitude had prescribed

• American Bar Association
• Louisiana Mineral Law Institute Advisory Council, 2008–2017
• Louisiana State Bar Association
• New Orleans Bar Association
• Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University, Instructor, "Navigating the Complex Regulatory World Of Offshore Leases," 2014
• Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Co-Chair, Special Institute on Federal and Indian Oil & Gas Royalty Valuation and Management, October 2018; President, 2016–2017; Vice-President, 2015–2016; Treasurer, 2007–2009; Executive Committee 2005–2009; Trustee-at-Large, 2002–2007; Co-Chair and Lecturer, Short Course on Federal Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing and Development, 2003–present; Co-Chair, Special Institute on Oil and Gas Development on the Outer Continental Shelf, April 2002
• Tulane University Law School, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law, “Oil and Gas Law” and “Federal Offshore Oil & Gas Law,” 2001–2008