Every mineral owner, lessor or unleased mineral owner, in a Haynesville Shale drilling and production unit should have a copy of the official unit survey.  The unit survey was used to calculate the lessor's decimal interest and includes the surveyed acreage of their unit tract(s) and the total acreage of the unit.  Using those two inputs and knowing the royalty fraction in their lease, a mineral lessor can calculate the correct payment decimal that appears on a royalty statement.  This is worth doing as I find many incorrect decimals on clients' statements.  The acreage of your tract or tracts should be close but not exactly the same as what appears on your lease documents or in the conveyance records that evidence your mineral ownership.  A tract with a property description that states 40 acres may actually be slightly different.  For example, 38.95 or 41.20 acres.  This is the official modern survey.  Anyone who would care to dispute the acreage should be prepared to pay for their own modern survey.

Tract acres divided by unit acres times the royalty fraction should be close to your eight digit decimal interest.  There will be some differences based on how someone chooses to round those long many digit numbers.  I tend to ignore any discrepancies beyond the fourth digit.  I appreciate the prompt response by Mr. Pizzolato at the Department of Conservation & Energy. I would like to hear from members who go through the process to acquire a missing unit survey.

Good morning Skip,

 Garrett Fredrick is the Manager of the Office of Enforcement, State Orders Division, & would be the best point of contact for requests involving missing unit survey plats. His phone number is (225) 219-9860, & his email address is Garrett.Fredrick@la.gov. He is currently out of the office today but will return Monday morning.

 Our mailing address is:

 Louisiana Department of Conservation & Energy

617 North Third Street

Baton Rouge, LA 70802

However, a mailed request is not necessary. We also accept requests for unit survey plats by email. If you can provide the LUW code or any other information you have regarding the unit, I would be happy to check our records.

Randall Pizzolato
Petroleum Scientist 3
Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy
Phone: 225-342-5548 | Email: Randall.Pizzolato@la.gov