Energy Transfer’s defense looked straightforward on paper. SilverBow Resources could drill around the contamination plume. It didn’t need to abandon wells or change its plans; it just needed to adjust where it drilled. Juries hear arguments like this regularly in energy disputes. The plaintiff says operations were disrupted; the defendant says the disruption was avoidable.
Then came the cross-examination.
What the Expert Conceded
AZA Law partner Cameron Byrd was questioning an Energy Transfer expert witness during the two-week trial in McMullen County’s 343rd District Court. The expert had been supporting Energy Transfer’s position: SilverBow could’ve simply worked around the plume of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide that had migrated from Energy Transfer’s disposal well.
Byrd pressed the witness on what “drilling around” the contamination actually required. The expert conceded that forcing SilverBow to change how it operated, to reroute drilling plans and alter its approach, was itself an acknowledgment that the company’s operations had been interfered with. And those workaround measures would cost money.
Todd Mensing, lead trial counsel for SilverBow and a partner at AZA Law, described the exchange afterward.
“It was very crystallized in that moment, he pointed out even those measures would cost money,” Mensing told The Texas Lawbook.
Why It Mattered
The admission cut against the core of Energy Transfer’s defense. If the defendant’s own expert acknowledged that the plaintiffs would need to spend money to work around the contamination, the jury had a clear path to finding that SilverBow suffered real, compensable harm. Drilling around a problem still costs money. Changing plans is still interference.
The AZA Law trial team included partners Taylor Freeman, Jane Robinson, and Cameron Byrd alongside Todd Mensing. Co-counsel from Hogan Thompson represented co-plaintiff El Dorado Gas and Oil.
A Unanimous Verdict
After roughly five hours of deliberation, jurors returned a unanimous $41.8 million verdict. SilverBow received $24.5 million; El Dorado received $17.3 million. The National Law Journal placed the award among the country’s Top 100 Verdicts for 2023.
SilverBow’s assistant general counsel, Jennifer Cadena, described the performance of Todd Mensing and AZA Law as “excellent” in a Texas Lawbook profile published in May 2024.
Energy Transfer filed a notice of appeal in July 2023. The case is now before the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio.