Why didn't the O&G companies buy up as much land (including minerals) as possible when they were quietly leasing all of these properties for $250/acre earlier this year? They would be getting 100% royalties on those properties rather than 75% and they wouldn't have to pay bonuses. Is it illegal for O&G to buy up land they want to lease? Is there too much red tape? It just seems that they would try to buy properties for around $3000/acre for full ownership.

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It just seems like years ago they would have come up with some kind of timber/O&G hybrid. That way they could explore the land and if they didn't find anything they could just plant it all in pine trees. Of course like you said the days of buying good land for cheap are over. I'm just surprised it didn't happen. I was looking for a specific law that prohibits it and Jim Krow helped with that.
First, I just think IMHO that most people do not want to sell their land. As KB stated sale of land does not exclude minerals unless it is government exappropriation as explored previously on this site. I'm not an expert on anything but an interested self-taught landowner. The thought did cross my mind though. But my property as been in my family for 85 years. Several people have come along thinking they could buy for a steal, they haven't succeeded.
I understand most people don't want to sell their land. I was just wondering why the O&G companies don't try to own more properties but instead just try to lease. I knew there must be some legal issues but I didn't know the specifics and I was trying to find out.
As Jim stated there is no lesion beyond moiety when minerals are leased or sold. Lesion DOES apply to the sale of real estate (wherein minerals would also transfer - UNLESS RESERVED).

Lesion beyond moiety is a Louisiana legal term that means you cannot buy property for less than 1/2 of the value without the sale being subject to rescission.

If the E & P companies had purchased the property, they would be subject to Lesion.

Lesion would probably be easier to prove than any condition to try to get out of a lease.

There was a lawsuit in Bossier where a Real Estate agent purchased a piece of property from a land owner to sell to the River Boats. The owner found out and sued and got the property back, and sold it to the River Boats himself.

Not to mention, maintenance , insurance and taxes on real estate.
KB,

I know this will sound corny, but any opportunity that I get to learn more about minerals, I enjoy.

The group was extremely small, so I was a little disappointed about that.

I asked about a dozen questions and enjoyed the answers, so if more people were there I wouldn't have had that opportunity.

Patrick Jackson gave a very informative discussion about what the Parish is trying to accomplish.

Mr. Settle and Mr. Estes also gave some interesting information.
Estes spoke at lenght about a case involving a family that was leased and then released and attempts at recovery of the costs of the well from them.

He covered a lot of the lease clauses that have been discussed here on the site also. I think most were much more interested in the lease clauses.

I found the case interesting. And something else to ponder.

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