OPINION
In this interlocutory appeal, appellant, First Oil PLC (First Oil), appeals from the trial court’s order denying its special appearance in the lawsuit filed by appellees, ATP Oil & Gas Corporation (ATP Texas) and ATP Oil & Gas (UK) Ltd. (ATPUK). See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 51.014(a)(7) (Vernon Supp. 2007). More than two years after the appellees filed the lawsuit, they amended their pleadings to add Ian Suttie as a party to the lawsuit and then used those amended pleadings to support their position that the trial court should grant their motion for continuance of the special appearance hearing. Appellees’ position was that First Oil would not be prejudiced by the delay of the special appearance hearing because the amended pleadings added a new party to the case and therefore the case would not be resolved by the special appearance hearing. In defending against the motion for continuance of the special appearance hearing, First Oil filed, argued, and obtained a favorable ruling on its motion to strike the amended pleading. The trial court held that First Oil’s conduct concerning the motion to strike the amended pleadings waived its special appearance because the motion to strike was determined before the special appearance motion. In its sole issue, First Oil contends it did not waive its special appearance because it was necessary to argue the motion to strike in order to defend against appellee’s motion for continuance of the special appearance hearing. Appellees respond by supporting the trial court’s waiver ruling, and, in a conditional cross-point, by challenging the trial court’s holding that, except for the waiver, the special appearance would have been meritorious. We conclude that the trial court erred in its determination that First Oil waived its special appearance, but we agree with the trial court’s finding that First Oil does not have sufficient minimum contacts with Texas to subject it to the jurisdiction of Texas courts. We therefore reverse and render judgment dismissing First Oil from the lawsuit.
BackgroundTo understand the underlying dispute, it is necessary to begin with a brief discussion of the relationship between the corporations that are the parties in this lawsuit. First Oil, a holding company incorporated in Scotland, is wholly owned and controlled by Suttie, a Scottish businessman. Suttie owns First Oils’s shares individually and through another company that he controls. First Oil is indirectly a parent company of Expro, a United Kingdom company specializing in the production of oil and gas in the North Sea. Expro entered into a joint venture with ATPUK to develop oil and gas properties in the North Sea. ATPUK is incorporated in England and Wales, and is a subsidiary of ATP Texas, a Texas corporation that engages in the business of acquisition, development, and production of oil and gas properties in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.
