# A Real-Life Landman Story: Battling Pioneer & Exxon in a $500MM+ Permian Top Lease Lawsuit w/ John Paul Merritt - CEO of Pony Oil Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-minerals-and-royalties-podcast-1221181/a-real-life-landman-story-battling-pioneer-exxon-in-a-500mm-permian-top-lease-lawsuit-w-john-paul-merritt-ceo-of-pony-oil Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-minerals-and-royalties-podcast-1221181/a-real-life-landman-story-battling-pioneer-exxon-in-a-500mm-permian-top-lease-lawsuit-w-john-paul-merritt-ceo-of-pony-oil.md Podcast: [The Minerals and Royalties Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-minerals-and-royalties-podcast-1221181) Published: 2025-10-28T12:21:58+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mineralsauthority/episodes/A-Real-Life-Landman-Story-Battling-Pioneer--Exxon-in-a-500MM-Permian-Top-Lease-Lawsuit-w-John-Paul-Merritt---CEO-of-Pony-Oil-e3a5djm Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/14a201c0/podcast/play/110326838/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-28%2F65717b75-d163-5ee8-0a8a-0d2953a851ee.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-minerals-and-royalties-podcast-1221181/episodes/a-real-life-landman-story-battling-pioneer-exxon-in-a-500mm-permian-top-lease-lawsuit-w-john-paul-merritt-ceo-of-pony-oil Duration seconds: 2128 ## Resource John Paul Merritt - CEO of Pony Oil joins the podcast to discuss Top Leasing in the Permian Basin, why he thinks it is an essential tool needed to maximize value for mineral owners, and how he has been battling Pioneer & Exxon in a $500mm+ Top Lease Lawsuit over the past few years. **Disclaimer: This podcast is meant for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. A big thanks to our 3 Minerals & Royalties Podcast Sponsors: --Tracts: If you are interested in learning more about Tracts title related services and software, then please call 281-892-2096 or visit https://tracts.co/ to learn more. --Riverbend Energy Group: If you are interested in discussing the sale of your Minerals and/or NonOp interests w/ Riverbend, then please visit www.riverbendenergygroup.com for more information --Farmers National Company: For more information on Farmer’s land management services, please visit www.fncenergy.com or email energy@farmersnational.com ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-minerals-and-royalties-podcast-1221181/episodes/a-real-life-landman-story-battling-pioneer-exxon-in-a-500mm-permian-top-lease-lawsuit-w-john-paul-merritt-ceo-of-pony-oil/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-minerals-and-royalties-podcast-1221181/a-real-life-landman-story-battling-pioneer-exxon-in-a-500mm-permian-top-lease-lawsuit-w-john-paul-merritt-ceo-of-pony-oil.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.