Settlement negotiations between Union Pacific Railroad and the Louisiana oil exploration firm WarHorse earlier this week failed to resolve the intense land dispute between the two.
The two companies are engaged in a legal—and sometimes physical—battle over the old Kenmore Plantation in Livonia once owned by the Holloway Planting Co. Union Pacific owns the surface rights to the 2,450-acre site and is building a storage-in-transit yard designed to triple its storage capacity for products from south Louisiana’s petrochemical plants.
WarHorse, owned by Steven and Jana Kent of Jarreau, holds the mineral rights and wants to drill two wells on the construction site. According to allegations in Baton Rouge federal court, both allegedly have used bulldozers to disrupt one another’s work.
U.S. Magistrate Michael North in New Orleans met with both parties on Tuesday to try to reach an agreement, but to little avail. “Negotiations were productive but unfortunately no resolution of this matter could be achieved at the present time,” North wrote in the court record. “The District Judge will be so advised.”
—Penny Font
