Lease termination and held-by-production disputes

What the record can show

• The primary term, the habendum clause and every savings clause: cessation of production, continuous operations, shut-in royalty, pooling.
• Monthly production reported to the state for the lease or the well, and the months with none.
• Permits, completions, workovers and plugging reports, with their dates.
• Releases, partial releases, extensions, ratifications and memoranda recorded in the county.
• New leases and top leases taken on the same land, and when.

Documents that matter

• The lease and every amendment.
• State production and well records for the lease and any unit well.
• Recorded releases and any affidavits about production or non-production.
• Division orders and check stubs that show when payments stopped or started.
• Shut-in payment records, usually produced in discovery.

How a landman's work helps

• A month-by-month timeline of production, operations and payments, set against the lease's clauses.
• A list of the gaps that matter under the lease's own periods, such as a 60 or 90 day cessation clause.
• The recorded instruments after a gap that recognize or ratify the lease.
• A one-page exhibit of the timeline.

What to send

• The lease, or its recording reference, and the county and state.
• The wells on the lease or in its unit, if you know them.
• The period in question.
• The lessee, the operator and other parties, for a conflicts check.

We are landmen, not attorneys. This page describes the land record in general terms. It is not legal advice, and every matter turns on its own instruments.