A leasehold is only as good as its calendar. Obligation calendaring, HBP audits, Pugh and depth severance analysis, continuous-drilling tracking, and the releases that clean up expired acreage.
Leasehold protection is the discipline of keeping every lease in force through its primary term and into HBP status — or, when the lease can’t be held, recording the release that cleans up the title. We run the calendar, file the paper, and audit the result.
Obligation calendar with redundant alerts and clear ownership for every deadline.
Shut-in payments, continuous operations, force majeure documentation, ratifications.
Releases of expired acreage, partial releases by zone or depth, post-production tidying.
Every lease has obligations: rentals, shut-in royalties, continuous-drilling deadlines, depth tests, and pooling election windows. We build and maintain the obligation calendar with redundant 90/60/30-day alerts and clear named ownership for every deadline.
Lease-by-lease obligation extraction from the lease form · Three-tier alerts at 90, 60, and 30 days before each deadline · Named-owner accountability with escalation to land manager · Calendar published to iLandMan, Quorum, or P2 with email alerts · Weekly upcoming-obligation report distributed to the land team · Monthly compliance review with miss-rate KPI tracking
Pre-paid leases dominate modern leasing, but legacy leases with delay-rental clauses still hold acreage in some basins. We calendar, calculate, and pay delay rentals on schedule.
Delay rental calendar with payment-due alerts · Per-acre and flat-rate rental calculation · Rental check preparation and certified-mail delivery · Recording of recorded-rental-receipt instruments where required · Rental statement preparation for partner notification
When a well is capable of production but shut in for marketing or pricing reasons, shut-in royalty payments keep the lease in force. We track shut-in status, calculate and pay the royalty, and document the operational status for the file.
Shut-in status flags by well and by lease · Shut-in royalty calculation per lease form · Annual or quarterly shut-in payment processing · Capable-of-production engineering documentation · Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico shut-in payment compliance · Marketing-based and pricing-based shut-in documentation
Many modern leases have continuous-drilling or continuous-operations clauses that extend the primary term as long as drilling continues at a stated cadence. Tracking the chain is detail work with severe consequences if missed.
Continuous drilling deadline calculation per lease form · Last-spud / first-production date tracking · Substitute well, redrill, and recompletion tracking · Operational gap analysis and gap-cure documentation · Continuous operations evidence packet preparation · Coordination with operations and drilling teams
Force majeure clauses can extend or toll lease obligations during qualifying events — regulatory delays, hurricanes, freezes, pandemic-era shutdowns. The right to invoke force majeure depends on the paper trail. We build the trail.
Force majeure event identification and qualification analysis · Force majeure notice drafting and timely delivery · Event documentation: news, regulatory orders, third-party records · Tolling-period calculation per lease form · Force majeure cessation notice and operational restart
Pugh clauses release the portion of a lease not included in a producing unit at the end of the primary term. Horizontal Pugh clauses release the portion outside the lateral. We map, calculate, and execute the release.
Pugh clause identification and interpretation per lease form · Production unit overlay against leased acreage · Released-acreage acreage calculation and mapping · Partial release instrument drafting and recording · Horizontal Pugh: lateral length, retained corridor, and released portion · Texas continuous-development clauses as a Pugh alternative
Depth severance (vertical Pugh) clauses release the formations below or above the producing interval at the end of the primary term. The analysis combines producing-interval logs with lease form language.
Depth-severance clause interpretation per lease form · Producing-interval depth determination from completion records · Retained-zone and released-zone mapping by lease · Partial release of deep rights or shallow rights · Coordination with deep-rights buyers and farm-out partners
HBP (held by production) and HBPD (held by production or drilling) status is the difference between a lease that lives indefinitely and a lease that expires. We audit HBP claims at the unit and tract level using production records, unit designations, and pooling instruments.
Unit-by-unit HBP analysis tied to producing wells · Tract-by-tract HBP rollup within each unit · Production-volume verification against state regulatory data · Continuous-production gap analysis (60-day, 90-day, lease-specific) · Pooling instrument verification for unit validity · HBP exposure report for portfolio risk management
Periodic lease expiration audits catch the leases that should be held but aren’t, the leases that are still in your records but legally expired, and the leases at risk of expiration in the next 12-24 months.
Full portfolio expiration audit with risk-rated reports · Already-expired leases identified for release · At-risk leases identified for top-leasing or extension · HBP-eligible leases identified for documentation cleanup · Annual or semi-annual expiration audit cadence
Expired or terminated leases should be released of record to clean up title in the county. Releases protect the operator from later third-party claims and let the mineral owner re-lease without title issues. We draft, execute, and record releases at scale.
Release of oil and gas lease (full or partial) · Release of recorded memorandum of lease · Release by zone, depth, or specific acreage · Bulk release campaigns for portfolio cleanup · Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma county recording coordination
Pooling validity depends on consent from every interest in the unit. Ratifications close the gaps after the fact — from newly identified heirs, from unleased NPRI owners, or from working-interest partners whose original consents were never recorded.
Pooling ratification campaigns post-unit-declaration · NPRI and ORRI ratifications for non-participating interests · Heir ratifications after probate or affidavit-of-heirship · Unit redesignation instruments to amend prior pooling · Pooling cure for compulsory pooling jurisdictions
Leasehold protection · oil and gas obligation calendaring · delay rental payment · shut-in royalty payment · continuous drilling clause · continuous operations · force majeure oil and gas · Pugh clause · horizontal Pugh · vertical Pugh · depth severance · retained acreage · HBP held by production · HBPD held by production or drilling · lease expiration audit · release of oil and gas lease · partial release · pooling ratification · pooling consent · pooling cleanup · unit redesignation · continuous development clause · substitute well · redrill · recompletion · capable of production · Texas RRC continuous operations.
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