Articles Posted in The Oil and Gas Lease

In Texas, an oil and gas lease grants to the lessee the fee mineral estate in the leased premises for the term of the lease. The lease provides for an initial term during which the lessee need do nothing in order to keep the lease in effect — called the “primary term.” Thereafter, the lease terminates unless the lessee is producing oil or gas or conducting operations in an effort to discover and produce oil or gas. If the lease remains in effect beyond the primary term, the remaining time the lease is in effect is called the “secondary term.” A typical lease will provide that

“This lease shall remain in effect for a term of three (3) years (the primary term) and as long thereafter as oil or gas is produced from the leased premises or operations, as provided herein, are being conducted on the leased premises.”

The primary term can be one month or ten years or more. Today, most leases provide for a three-year primary term. If no production or operations take place during the primary term, the lease terminates automatically and the mineral estate reverts to the lessor.

I got the idea for starting this blog from a presentation I made at a meeting of the Texas Land & Mineral Owners’ Association, titled “Checklist for Negotiating an Oil and Gas Lease.” TLMA posted the outline of my presentation on its website. I soon began receiving calls from people who had found the article on the net. I had no idea that the article had found its way to the net, but the popularity of the checklist led me to believe that landowners might profit from other articles of interest to them on matters related to oil and gas exploration and development.

The oil and gas lease is the foundational document on which the oil and gas industry in the US is based. Its form and provisions have been modified and shaped over the years to respond to changing industry practices and developments in the law, but its essential form has remained unchanged since the latter half of the 19th century. It is one of the most commonly used and successful legal documents in US commerce.

So, I thought it would be a good idea to write a few posts focused on the oil and gas lease, of which this is the first.