One more suggestion if only the lessor is signing the lease and there is an addendum. In addition to executing 2 originals, add a notary block to the addendum page so there is proof that this was executed at the same time as the lease. The addendum page should specify that it is for lease dated xxx 2006 from Owner A to Lessee B, preferably with reference to county and state. This way if the addendum page is separated from the rest of the lease, it is easy to put pages together. Consider adding same notation on all the lease pages for identification.
Good idea! Sometimes that Addendum might “accidentally” wander off.
Our attorney puts all the clauses that used to be in an addendum in the lease so that there is only one signature page. And putting page numbers 1/4, 2/4, etc with initials line makes it obvious that the total document is complete (or not).
I have been a landman and mineral owner for 50 years. The memo is one of the stupidest concepts ever created. I handled the lease acquisition for a very large multi-county prospect a few year ago. The prospect had a lot of older, very marginal production where the wells were operated by essentially very small operators that really had no land department or files. We ended up having many situations where a copy of the original lease simply did not exist. We were developing deeper zones and had no way to know who actually owned those rights.
I do still occasionally sign a memo. If I do, I try to lease only the prospective zones and have the memo reflect that accordingly. If that is not possibility, then I will insist the depth release language and pugh clause language be reflected in the memo.
As you probably are aware of there are Oil and Gas leases that some law firms have that are “copyrighted”! As time goes by with some family estates the original copy of the lease is “lost”.. So the next generation or two has little idea about the detailed terms. Having a copy of the original leased signed by the lessee is a great idea and saved to a cloud service.