Consent to Assign — A Scourge Upon Your Lease
As landmen in the field, an often mentioned request by mineral owners is that the lease not be assignable without consent of the lessor. On the surface this is a perfectly reasonable request, because Mr. Johnny just wants to make sure that he knows who holds his lease and that they are good folks. Unfortunately this clause can cause all sorts of heart burn later down the road. Most legal departments draft this clause with a caveat, “such consent will not be unreasonably withheld.” Unfortunately most leases don’t define the word ‘unreasonable’, and there are a multitude of perfectly reasonable-reasons ...
Book Review: Oil and Gas Title Examination
So I’ve spent the last several weeks digesting a book by George J. Morgenthaler, Oil and Gas Title Examination. The book is designed for attorneys who prepare title opinions, but it will be very useful to the experienced title researcher. When a title researcher understands what a title examiner is looking for, it will assuredly help them to deliver a higher quality product. When you purchase the book you will have the option of receiving an e-book version or a hard-bound copy. I reviewed the hard-bound book, and I was particularly impressed with the quality of the printing and binding. ...
Continuous Drilling, Operations, and Development – What’s the Difference?
There are so many lease provisions that can be thrown into an agreement that often times the meanings can become skewed. More often than not, they can even mean different things to different people. It’s important to communicate with the other party to determine the intent, and ensure that the language conveys the intent of both parties. So, as the start of my series exploring various lease provisions I’m going to discuss continuous drilling, continuous operations, and continuous development. The truth is that all three of these clauses are savings clauses, and are therefore very similar in application. Generally speaking, ...
