Oil Lease Termination

Louisiana Mineral Rights Caddo Parish, LA
1

My family has a 25-acre property in Keithville, Louisiana. Me and my cousins inherited the property from our grandmother. My Cousins signed mineral leases in 2009 and 2013 with the Oil and Gas company. I did not sign any lease nor was I aware of the leases. The cousins had been receiving small checks from the oil and gas leases through 2014. The Oil and Gas company stopped sending checks in 2015.

From 2015 through 2024 there was no mineral extraction activity on the 25-acre site. In 2024 the company, changed their name, and started drilling again without any notification to my cousins, and started sending the small checks to my cousins.

I have never signed any mineral leases with the old or the new Oil and Gas Companies. I want the mineral leases terminated. My cousins now agree with me. How can I have the Oil and Gas company lease terminated and removed from the property?

2

Several things here.

First, contact the operator and see why you were not contacted to lease and are not in pay for the current wells. Might as well try to recoup any funds due to you. There may or may not be a defect in the title information. Or if you do not have your address properly filed in the county courthouse where the minerals are located along with the probate documents, they do not know you exist. Or it might be too late due to the statute of limitations.

The mineral estate is usually dominant over the surface estate, so if the wells are already drilled, the surface owner does not generally have any power unless they own 100% of the mineral rights. If the wells are flowing, doubt that the operator would want to stop them since they usually get 75-80% of the royalties.