I will probably never lease again, but if I did I would want a clause that nothing less than production would save my lease for the operator, after all they had years to drill and complete a well. If the operator thinks they need more time they should have tried a longer lease. The lease bonus on a paid up lease is delay payments paid in advance. In my opinion, no production, no payments, should = no lease. I think it would be a perversion of the shut-in clause to apply it to a well that was never completed and produced. The only reason I would lease is to actually produce my minerals. It would never be my intent to lease so the operator could drill a well and lock in a low price holding my mineral acres stockpiled with a non-producing well. I would recommend that you bargain to get more out of shut-in payments, such as they be quarterly and $50 per acre rather than the usual $1 per net acre per year. Don’t allow the operator to stockpile your acres for virtually nothing.