If several lease brokers working for different oil companies are leasing in the same general area's conspire to hold the bonus money and royalties at a certain price along with the addendum provisions, when and if does it become a illegal?
What about "area's of mutual interest"? Partnerships and so forth in leasing small area's?
Probably would be illegal but you'd have to get one of them to admit it or find some documentation to prove it. Sometimes the landman gets an override, carved out of the difference between what the oil co would have paid and what the lease agent got you to agree to. For instance my aunt leased for 15% royalty, the landman got a whopping 5% override (royalty) and flipped it to another co that sold it and retained a .625% interest. The landman will get 1/3 as much as my aunt just for the hour of work getting her to sign. I wish she had called me.