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Permalink Reply by Florida Ginnie on August 14, 2008 at 1:53

Thank you. The leases start at 3 year term, so how could a present owner of (2 years) be able to sign 3-year lease with 2-year option? In other words If you own mineral rights for 2-years how can you sign a 3 year? Also there won't be any production during that 2 year period, therefore reverting to other party of full ownership of mineral rights. Sorry for the confusion, i appreciate your help. thanks

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Permalink Reply by Blenda T22 on August 29, 2008 at 20:37

Florida Ginnie,
I hope someone has helped you understand this law by now, but ..just in case...
The person who currently owns the mineral rights has the right to sign for an unlimited period of time for a lease if they want to. They will own the mineral rights as long as there is production in their section (or however it is set up). If there is production, the physical land owner will never recover the mineral rights. The 10 year law only applies if there is NO production what-so-ever for the 10 year period.

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Permalink Reply by Blenda T22 on August 29, 2008 at 20:28

The statutes pretaining to this are available on-line, and yes you do seem to have it correct. My family has land that has been under lease for over 60 years because someone is ALWAYS pumping somewhere!!

I have HEARD that there is a difference in the mineral rights being "reserved" as opposed to "retained." What I heard is that reserved reverts back after 10 years of no activity but that retained lasts forever reguardless of activity/no activity.

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Permalink Reply by Dion Warr, CPL on August 13, 2008 at 13:08

Bravo M. Wren!

Reserving your minerals in Louisiana creates a servitude which can last for no longer than ten years of nonuse. However, any good-faith attempt to produce minerals from the subject property (drilling a well to a depth one would expect to find producible minerals, or good-faith operations on a formerly producing well), whether successful or not, shall interrupt the prescription of the entire servitude. Similar good-faith attempts on lands pooled with the subject property shall interrupt the prescription only as to the portion of the subject property pooled with the lands on which said attempt has occurred.

You could go 9 years, 11 months an a day into the life of the servitude, and have a well spudded and drilled over the next six months, only to find out it was a dry hole, and then repeat these circumstances again and again. The servitude would not have prescribed. This is how people in intermittently and continuously productive areas have acquired lands with mineral reservations from the 1930s and 1940s that still do not own their minerals.

That being said: if the servitude prescribed to you in your situation, and you have not signed a lease, your tract would be open. Mr. X who currently holds your servitude would no longer have mineral rights to lease at the moment the servitude prescribed. Therefore, his lease would no longer have any effect.

This is different than you selling your property (if you owned surface and minerals) to Mrs. Y with no mineral reservation after you have signed a lease. In that case, Mrs. Y would own surface and minerals, SUBJECT TO THE LEASE.

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Permalink Reply by Margaret Wren on August 13, 2008 at 13:19

Thank you Dion, now if I could figure out my depth limitations and whether or not the company I leased to has infringed on the unleased area, it appears they may have. I know.... I will get an attorney!

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Permalink Reply by Dion Warr, CPL on August 19, 2008 at 5:04

Sorry about the late reply, W. Wren, but if you have a strata redefinition problem, you may want to get an attorney and a consulting geologist. Depending on your depth clause, and what had been going on in limited areas in which the CV/LCV intervals were being redefined, you might want to consider a review of the well log to see if they actually penetrated and/or perf'ed the shale formation.

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Permalink Reply by Eliza on August 14, 2008 at 3:10

What about this situation - person owns minerals + land and leased to O&G company; person sold surface but kept minerals for lifetime; well was drilled and gas produced even today; person died; even though land was HBP when the person died the minerals went to surface owner. Was this correct?

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on August 14, 2008 at 4:03

Maybe. As long as the well was drilled within the 10 year prescriptive the minerals would not prescibe to the surface owner, unless the deed that reserved the minerals specificaly mentioned the servitude would extingish upon the owners death.

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Permalink Reply by Eliza on August 14, 2008 at 4:06

the well was drilled during the lifetime of the person who kept the minerals for lifetime, but even so they went to the surface owner upon death. The deed stated it minerals were for lifetime.

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Permalink Reply by BMP on August 14, 2008 at 5:40

Lifetime would mean the rest of the seller's life, with a maximum of 10 years.

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Permalink Reply by po boy on August 14, 2008 at 18:28

This thread got way off topic.

I do not see that any current offers have been posted,
The feeding frenzy seems to be cooling off for reason or reasons unknown. It does seem that the suspected Hot Spots were bought early at prices not much higher than the state avg. before the high signing bonuses started.
Unless anyone has signed or had an offer in the last week, I think we can end this discussion.

Anyone have any new infomation to offer?

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Permalink Reply by RAY on August 14, 2008 at 18:46

8/6/8
"Twilight Meadows" subdivision off Jefferson Paige Rd.
signed as a group for $17,500 / 25% ..Twin Cities

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