landman.help

A landman on your side of the paper.

For landowners and mineral owners with a lease offer, a division order, a pipeline easement, a pooling notice, or royalty checks that stopped. Tell us what you got. We'll read it and tell you plainly what it says and what we'd ask for.

Who we work for. The landman who brought you the paper works for the company. When you bring us a question, we work for you on it, and we don't take the company's side of that same deal.

Ask a landman or call (307) 263-8515

Not sure what you have? Pick it from a short list and see what a landman checks first.

Producers 88, paid-up · typical printed wording

Oil, Gas and Mineral Lease

This agreement is made , 20, between , Lessor1 (whether one or more), and Energy, LLC, Lessee2.

1. Lessor, in consideration of Ten Dollars ($10.00) and other good and valuable consideration3, the receipt of which is acknowledged, leases exclusively to Lessee the land described below for exploring for, drilling and producing oil and gas.

  1. 1Lessor is you, the owner.
  2. 2Lessee is the company. The landman who brought this works for it.
  3. 3Your real bonus isn't written here. Get the amount per acre and the date it pays in writing. If it comes as a draft, the company can refuse to pay it if its title check turns something up.
The top of a typical lease form, marked up the way we mark yours.

What did you get?

Tick the one closest to your situation. You'll see what a landman checks first, in plain words. Nothing you pick here is sent anywhere.

What came in the mail, or stopped coming

What we'd look at first

A lease offer, Texas

3/16 is a common first offer in many areas. Whether you can get more depends on the play and who else is leasing near you. The royalty is only part of it: the rest of the form decides what comes out of that royalty and how long the lease can hold your land.

  1. The bonus in writing: dollars per net mineral acre, whether it's a check or a draft, and the date it pays.
  2. Royalty on gross proceeds, free of all costs, with wording that controls over any “at the well” language.
  3. A Pugh clause, horizontal and vertical, so land and depths outside a producing unit are released after the primary term.
  4. Shut-in royalty limited to two years in a row, with a real payment per acre.
  5. No general warranty of title. Ask for no warranty, or a special warranty.
  6. If you own the surface: a surface use and damage agreement, and no free use of your fresh water.

Texas: the mineral estate is dominant, so any limit on how the company uses your surface has to be in writing.

General information to help you ask the right questions. Not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.

Send this to a landman

Five paragraphs to read twice

These are the parts of a printed lease form that cost owners the most. The wording is typical, not any one company's. Our notes are in red, with what we'd ask for.

Oil, Gas and Mineral Lease (excerpt)

3. Royalty

Lessee shall pay Lessor, as royalty, one-eighth (1/8) one-fourth (1/4)1 of the market value at the well2 of all oil and gas produced and saved from the leased premises, less a proportionate part of the costs of treating, compressing and transporting it on gross proceeds, free of all costs3.

  1. 1One-eighth is the old printed-form number. In active plays owners often get 3/16, 1/5 or 1/4. What your land can get depends on the play and who else is leasing near you.
  2. 2“At the well” lets the company take the cost of getting gas to market out of your share, even if the lease also says “no deductions” (Texas: Heritage Resources v. NationsBank, 1996).
  3. 3Ask for royalty on gross proceeds at the point of sale, free of all costs, with a line saying it controls over any at-the-well wording. Texas courts have enforced that kind of language (Chesapeake v. Hyder, 2016; Devon v. Sheppard, 2023).

4. Pooling

Lessee may pool the leased premises, or any part of it, with other land to form units of up to 640 acres, plus a tolerance of ten percent, for gas or horizontal wells. Production from any part of a unit shall be treated as production from the leased premises1 and shall keep this lease in force as to all of the leased premises but only for the land and depths inside the unit2.

  1. 1One well anywhere in the unit can hold your whole tract, even the part left out of the unit. That's how a lease stays alive for decades on a few acres of production.
  2. 2Ask for a Pugh clause both ways: after the primary term, land outside a producing unit is released (horizontal), and so are depths below the deepest producing formation (vertical). Ask for a copy of every unit designation too.

5. Shut-in royalty

If a well capable of producing gas is shut in, Lessee may pay as shut-in royalty one dollar per acre1 per year, and this lease shall remain in force as though gas were being produced for not more than two years in a row2.

  1. 1A dollar an acre a year can hold your minerals while no gas is sold.
  2. 2Ask for a limit: no more than two years in a row and a set number of years in all, with a real payment per acre and a date it's due. When the limit runs out, the lease ends unless the well produces.

7. Use of the surface

Lessee shall have the right to use so much of the surface1 as is reasonably necessary for its operations, including free use of water from the premises water only as bought from Lessor2, and the right to build roads, lay pipelines and place tanks and equipment on the premises3.

  1. 1The mineral estate is dominant. Without a written agreement, the company decides where the pad and the roads go (Texas: Sun Oil Co. v. Whitaker, 1972).
  2. 2Keep your fresh water wells, tanks and creeks off limits. If they want water, they buy it under a separate agreement.
  3. 3Ask for a surface use and damage agreement if you own the surface: your say on locations, a price for each pad, road and pipeline, and restoration when they're done.

9. Title

Lessor warrants and agrees to defend title makes no warranty of title1 to the leased premises. If Lessor owns less than the entire mineral estate, the royalties shall be reduced proportionately2.

  1. 1A general warranty makes you answer for every deed back through your family's chain. Ask for no warranty, or a special warranty that covers only what you did yourself.
  2. 2Fair enough: own half the minerals, get paid on half. Check that the lease describes what you actually own.

Have a lease in hand? Email it to hello@landman.help or tell us about it, and we'll mark up yours.

Does your decimal add up?

A division order shows your share of a well as a decimal. For a simple unit you can check it yourself with three numbers.

NMA
acres

Net mineral acres are the tract's acres times your share of the minerals. 40 acres where you own half the minerals is 20 NMA.

10 ÷ 640 × 1/4 =

0.00390625

Your net acres inside the unit A square stands for the whole unit, divided into quarters. A red box inside it is your net mineral acres, drawn to scale. your 10 NMA 640-acre unit

Companies carry eight places. If yours doesn't match, ask how they got it before you sign.

A horizontal well that crosses more than one unit or tract can be split by tract or by lateral length, so a different number isn't always wrong. You can still ask for the math, and we'll check it with you.

Pipeline and power line easements

An easement runs with your land to every owner after you. Unless the company has the power of eminent domain for this line, it needs your signature, and the route, the terms and the price are all open. Even when it can condemn, the terms are worth negotiating. In Texas, a company with that power has to give you the Landowner's Bill of Rights before it negotiates.

Right-of-Way Agreement (excerpt)

Grantor grants to Grantee a perpetual1 easement to lay, construct, maintain, operate, repair, replace and remove one or more pipelines one pipeline of stated size2 and appurtenances for the transportation of oil, gas, water or other substances3 across the lands described, with the right of ingress and egress4. Grantee shall pay Grantor $ ____ per rod5.

  1. 1Ask for an end: if the line is abandoned or unused for a set time, it comes out or the easement is released, in writing.
  2. 2One line, of a stated size. A second line should mean a second payment.
  3. 3Name the product. “Other substances” can mean almost anything.
  4. 4Name the access route and the gates, and who repairs roads and fences.
  5. 5A rod is 16.5 feet. Ask how the figure was set, and whether damages to crops, timber and fences are paid on top.
Cross-section of a pipeline trench A drawing of a buried pipe in its trench. Numbered marks show the permanent easement width, the temporary workspace, the depth of cover over the pipe, the topsoil piled apart from the subsoil, and the single pipe. 1 2 3 4 5
  1. 1Permanent width, stated in feet.
  2. 2Temporary workspace, stated, with a date it goes back to you.
  3. 3Depth of cover over the pipe. Ask for 48 inches or more where you farm, or might.
  4. 4Double ditching: topsoil piled apart from the subsoil and put back on top.
  5. 5One pipe, of a stated size, carrying a stated product.

Words in the paperwork

Landman shorthand, in plain English.

Lessor and lessee
The lessor is the owner who grants the lease. The lessee is the company that takes it.
Bonus
The one-time payment for signing a lease, usually quoted per net mineral acre.
Primary term
The years the company has to drill or produce. If it doesn't, the lease ends on its own.
Held by production (HBP)
A lease kept alive past its primary term because a well on the land, or in its unit, is producing.
Royalty
Your share of what's produced, free of the cost of drilling. The lease says what else can come out of it.
Net mineral acres (NMA)
The tract's acres times your share of the minerals. Half the minerals under 40 acres is 20 NMA.
Decimal interest
Your share of a well's production, written as a decimal: net acres over unit acres, times your royalty.
Division order
The company's statement of your decimal and where to send your money. Signing one doesn't change your lease.
Suspense
Royalty the company is holding instead of paying, usually over a title question or a missing address.
Pooling and units
Combining tracts into one unit so a well can drain them all. Each owner shares in production by acreage.
Pugh clause
A clause that releases the land (horizontal) or the depths (vertical) outside a producing unit once the primary term ends.
Shut-in royalty
A small payment that keeps a lease alive while a gas well can produce but isn't selling.
Gross proceeds
Royalty figured on the full price the oil or gas sells for, with no costs taken out.
Surface damage agreement
A contract with the surface owner that sets locations, payments, water use and restoration.
Right-of-way (ROW)
An easement that lets a company build and run a pipeline or power line across your land. Often priced per rod, which is 16.5 feet.
Affidavit of heirship
A sworn statement, signed by people who knew the family, recorded to show who inherited from an owner who died.

Questions owners ask us

The company's landman says I have 14 days to sign or lose the bonus. Is that real?

Sometimes a deadline is real, when a company is racing to put a unit together. More often it's pressure. Ask for the deadline, and what happens after it, in writing. A fair offer rarely disappears because you took a week to have it read.

Can they drill and produce my minerals if I don't sign?

It depends on the state. In Texas, pooling comes from the lease; the state's forced pooling law is rarely used. Oklahoma and New Mexico let the state pool unleased owners, with the choices set out in an order. Louisiana forms units by order and pays unleased owners under its statute. A pooling notice has a deadline, so read the date first.

What's a division order, and does signing it change my lease?

It's the company's statement of your decimal and where to send your money. In Texas it can't change your lease (Tex. Nat. Res. Code § 91.402). Check the decimal, your name and your address, and strike anything that isn't about how you're paid.

Who do you work for, and what does it cost?

You, on the question you bring us. We're independent landmen with Our Landmen LLC. Landmen like us also work for companies, but we don't work both sides of the same deal. Reading your question and telling you what we see costs nothing. If it needs courthouse work, a negotiation or a title run, we'll tell you the fee before we start, and you decide.

Are you lawyers?

No. We're landmen: we read leases, run title at the courthouse and negotiate terms. We don't give legal opinions. If your question needs an attorney, we'll say so, and we're glad to work alongside yours.

Ask a landman

Tell us what you got and where the land is. A landman with Our Landmen LLC reads every request, and on your question we work for you.

What happens next

  1. We read what you send.
  2. If we can answer from that, we will, by phone or email.
  3. If it needs courthouse work or a negotiation, we'll tell you what that involves and what it costs before we start.

Rather talk it through? Call (307) 263-8515. You can also email the lease or letter to hello@landman.help.

We are landmen, not attorneys, and we don't give legal opinions.

A phone number, an email, or both. We'll use whichever you give us.