TEXAS LANDOWNER REPRESENTATION

Navigating Eminent Domain for the Eiger Express Pipeline

Helping Texas landowners on the Eiger Express route protect their rights and recover the full compensation they deserve.

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The Eiger Express Pipeline Project in Texas

The Eiger Express Pipeline is a 450-mile natural gas pipeline planned to run from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the Katy area outside Houston. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, and the company is working to acquire easements now.

The proposed pipeline is intended to transport natural gas to market, and it will cross private property to get there. Eiger Express needs permanent easements from property owners in 18 Texas counties, where most of that land is working farms and ranches. The company confirms it holds the power of eminent domain, and it will use it if voluntary agreements cannot be reached with landowners.

For Texas landowners with property along the route, the easement is the critical document. It controls what you can do with that strip of land for as long as the pipeline exists, and what the company owes you for the damage to everything around it. Those terms run with the land and outlast your ownership. There is no renegotiating them later.

Project Overview

Eiger Express has published the following specifications for the project:

  • Length: approximately 450 miles
  • Diameter: up to 48 inches
  • Capacity: up to 3.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day
  • Route: begins in West Texas, crosses southeast through Central Texas, and ends in the Katy area outside Houston
  • Permanent easement: 50 feet wide
  • Temporary construction workspace: approximately 75 additional feet
  • Depth of cover: at least 3 feet below the surface, and a minimum of 5 feet under road crossings
  • Construction: expected to begin in 2027
  • In service: expected mid-2028, pending regulatory and other approvals

For a landowner, the two figures that matter most are the ones describing what happens to your property. A 50-foot permanent easement means a 50-foot strip you can no longer build on, plant trees on, or dig in — for as long as the pipeline exists. The additional 75 feet of construction workspace means that during construction, roughly 125 feet of your land is in use. It also means that the vegetation in that area is removed.

Learn more about the project: Eiger Express Project Overview, Fact Sheet, and FAQ (PDFs)

Eiger Express Pipeline eminent domain

Affected Counties:

Eiger Express has published county-level topographic route maps for 18 Texas counties:

View the county route maps: County Maps A–M · County Maps N–Z

Landowners Facing Two Projects at Once: The Route 559 & Route 476 Conflict

Thirteen of Eiger Express Pipeline’s 18 route counties also sit directly along Oncor’s 765 kV transmission line corridors.

Status Update (August 28, 2026): The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) granted final approval for two major transmission lines, designating their permanent route centerlines:

  • Dinosaur to Longshore (PUCT Docket No. 59315): Route 559 approved (242.6 miles, Somervell to Howard County).
  • Longshore to Drill Hole (PUCT Docket No. 59029): Route 476 approved (181.6 miles, Howard to Culberson/Reeves County line).

If your property lies along Route 559 or Route 476 and is also approached for an Eiger Express Pipeline easement, you are facing two separate eminent domain actions.

Condemnors routinely argue that placing multiple utilities on a single property causes minimal incremental damage. Under Texas law, each taking must be evaluated independently. The order in which you negotiate, settle, or litigate these easements could alter what you recover for damages to the remainder of your land.

Learn more: Oncor’s Proposed 765 kV Transmission Line Projects

Connection to the Matterhorn Express Pipeline

Eiger Express is not an independent newcomer. The Matterhorn joint venture holds a 70% interest in the project, with ONEOK, Inc. and MPLX LP each holding 15% directly. WhiteWater Midstream — which built and operates the Matterhorn Express Pipeline — will build and operate Eiger Express as well.

In plain terms: the ownership group that built the Matterhorn Express Pipeline is building Eiger Express, largely along the same corridor.

For affected landowners, that connection matters in two concrete ways.

First, this is an experienced condemnor. This group has already run a full Permian Basin-to-Katy easement acquisition campaign and has taken condemnation cases through jury trial. Its land agents, appraisers, and easement forms are refined.

Second, if Matterhorn already crosses your land, Eiger may be next. The Eiger route follows much of the Matterhorn corridor. This is the corridor effect, and it works against landowners:

  • Second and later lines are usually valued lower. Condemnors routinely argue that once a corridor exists, an additional pipeline causes little additional harm — so the compensation offered on the second line is less than the first.
  • Construction damage compounds. A second campaign means another round of soil disruption, livestock and crop interference, gate and fence issues, and access traffic.
  • The burden is permanent. Easement terms run with the land. They do not expire and generally cannot be renegotiated later.

Do not sign a second easement — or assume you have no say — until an attorney has reviewed your first one.

Learn more: Matterhorn Express Pipeline & Eminent Domain

What an Eiger Easement Means for Your Land

An easement is not a sale. You keep title to the land, and you keep paying taxes on it. What you give up is control, and you give it up permanently.

During Construction

Roughly 125 feet of your property is in active use while crews clear, trench, weld, and backfill. That means heavy equipment, temporary access roads, disturbed topsoil, cut fences, opened gates, and interrupted grazing or cropping.

The company commits to restoring the area “as close to previous conditions as possible,” but that promise is only as good as the language in your easement. Topsoil separation, rock and debris removal, reseeding with specified mixes, terrace repair, and fence and gate replacement all have to be written in. If they aren’t specified, you have no enforceable remedy when the work is done badly.

After the Line Is In Service

The 50-foot permanent easement becomes a strip you cannot build on or excavate. Crews retain the right to enter it for inspection, maintenance, and repair, and to keep it cleared. Anything you had planned for that footprint, from a barn to a future homesite, is off the table.

When You Sell or Develop

This is the consequence landowners consistently underestimate. A 48-inch high-pressure gas line affects the marketability and value of land well beyond the easement itself. Buyers discount it. Tracts get severed into less useful pieces. Development potential shrinks. These are remainder damages, and on ranch and agricultural property they frequently exceed the value of the strip taken.

If You Don’t Reach an Agreement

Eiger Express can file a condemnation suit, and once it deposits the special commissioners’ award with the court, it can take possession and begin construction while the case is still being litigated. Refusing to sign does not stop the pipeline. It preserves your right to argue what the taking is actually worth.

What Texas Eminent Domain Law Does and Doesn’t Protect

In Texas, a pipeline company can take an easement across private property if it qualifies as a common carrier, meaning it transports gas for one or more third-party customers. Eiger Express states it holds that power. The public use threshold is low, and challenging whether a pipeline qualifies is difficult and rarely successful.

Understanding what the law actually gives you matters more.

Texas law protects your right to:

  • Be paid for more than the strip of land. You may be owed just compensation for the easement plus damages to the remainder of your property.
  • Negotiate the terms, not just the price. Width, depth, line count, access, and restoration standards are all on the table.
  • Get your own appraisal. The company’s appraiser works for the company.
  • Reject the offer and be heard. You can take the matter to a Special Commissioners’ hearing, and if that award is still too low, to a jury.

Texas law does not:

  • Require the company’s offer to be generous. The statute requires the company to make a written offer. It does not require that offer to reflect what your property may really be worth.
  • Keep the company off your land while you litigate. Once it deposits the special commissioners’ award with the court, it can take possession and begin construction with the case still pending.
  • Provide you a lawyer. Eiger Express has counsel, appraisers, and land agents working from the first letter. You start with none of that unless you go get it.

That last asymmetry is the whole problem. The company has done this hundreds of times. For most landowners, it is the first and only time.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Eiger Express Pipeline Project

Eiger Express has published topographic route maps for 18 Texas counties and states that landowners on the current route will be contacted by a company representative. Routes change during permitting, however, so being outside the initial maps is not a guarantee.

The company’s published figures are a 50-foot permanent easement plus roughly 75 feet of additional temporary workspace during construction. Compensation for both are negotiable, and the temporary workspace should be separately compensated.

No. But if you decline, the company can file a condemnation suit and acquire the easement through eminent domain. Declining to sign is not how you stop a pipeline — it is how you preserve your right to argue for full compensation.

There is no standard rate. Compensation depends on the acreage taken, the character and highest and best use of your land, where the route falls on your property, and the damages to the value of your remaining land. Neighbors’ settlements are a poor benchmark — many were low.

That is a statement of policy, not a legal limit. The company confirms it holds the power of eminent domain. Negotiate on the assumption it can and will be used.

Possibly — and your existing easement may already allow it. Some pipeline easements permit additional lines within the same right-of-way with little or no further payment. Have your existing easement reviewed before you respond.

We recommend: be courteous, sign nothing, and don’t grant survey permission or discuss numbers before you have counsel. Ask for everything in writing and keep a record of every contact.

How Dawson & Sodd Protects Landowners in the Eiger Pipeline Corridor

Dawson & Sodd only represents Texas landowners. We have never worked for a pipeline company, a utility, or a condemning authority, and we never will.

What makes an Eiger easement different from most pipeline takings is that it may not be your first one. The Eiger route follows much of the Matterhorn Express corridor, and many landowners in its path already signed a Matterhorn easement. Our first step in those cases is reading the document you already have, because it may govern what happens next more than anything Eiger’s land agent tells you. 

From there, our work on an Eiger matter typically involves:

  • Reviewing any existing easement on your property to determine whether it covers this line, and what leverage remains if it does
  • Negotiating the easement document itself — the 50-foot permanent width, the 75 feet of construction workspace, depth, line count, access rights, and enforceable restoration standards for a 48-inch line
  • Valuing the taking as a whole, including damages to the remainder, which on ranch and agricultural property often exceed the value of the strip itself
  • Coordinating strategy when a second condemnor is involved, since 13 of Eiger’s 18 counties also sit on Oncor’s proposed 765 kV routes and the order in which you resolve them affects what you recover
  • Taking the case to a Special Commissioners’ hearing or a jury when the company will not pay what the property is worth

We have litigated against this ownership group before. The Matterhorn joint venture holds a 70% interest in Eiger Express, and our attorneys have tried a Matterhorn condemnation to a jury verdict.

Fight for What Your Land Is Worth

Construction on the Eiger Express Pipeline is targeted for 2027, which means easement acquisition is happening now. For most landowners, the first contact is not an offer. It is a request for permission to survey. The land agent who brings it will be courteous and well prepared, working from a script that has been used on hundreds of properties before yours.

Three things to do when that happens:

  • Get everything in writing. Ask for the proposed easement document itself and the route map showing where the line crosses your tract. Verbal assurances from a land agent about depth, restoration, or future lines are not binding. The document is.
  • Find your existing easements. If you own land in the Matterhorn corridor, or anywhere a pipeline or power line already crosses, locate those documents before you respond. What you signed years ago may control what happens now.
  • Don’t discuss numbers, and don’t sign anything, until someone has read it for you. That includes survey permission and right-of-entry forms. Early paperwork shapes leverage you may want later.

What your neighbors settled for is not a benchmark. Compensation depends on where the line falls on your particular tract, what you use the land for, and what the easement does to the value of everything outside it. Two properties on the same route can be worth very different amounts, and the landowner who takes the neighbor’s number as a fair one may leave money behind.

Talking to us costs nothing. Contact Dawson & Sodd for a free consultation — Corsicana (903) 872-8181, Dallas (214) 373-8181.

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Matterhorn Express Pipeline

If your property is affected by the Matterhorn Express Pipeline, or if you have received communication from WhiteWater Midstream or its representatives, do not hesitate to seek legal counsel. Contact Dawson & Sodd today for a free, confidential consultation to discuss your specific situation and learn how we can help protect your interests.

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