You don't need to know any of this to enjoy The Lease. But if you want to know what a landman does, or why a 1987 lease could get someone killed, here are the terms in plain English.
- Oil and gas lease
- A contract where a mineral owner (lessor) grants a company (lessee) the right to explore for and produce oil and gas for a period of time, in exchange for a signing bonus and royalties. In The Lease, a 1987 lease found near a dead man is the first clue.
- Landman
- An oil and gas professional who researches who owns the minerals under a tract of land, then negotiates and signs leases. Landmen live in courthouse records, title chains and kitchen-table negotiations.
- Mineral rights
- Ownership of the oil, gas and other minerals beneath the surface. In Texas, mineral rights can be split from the surface and sold, leased or inherited separately. That's why old family land can hide very valuable secrets.
- Surface rights
- Ownership of the land itself. The surface owner and mineral owner can be different people.
- Royalty
- The mineral owner's share of production revenue, stated as a fraction such as 1/8 or 1/4, paid free of drilling costs.
- Working interest
- The share of a well that pays the costs of drilling and operating it, and takes the remaining profit.
- Primary term
- The initial number of years a lease runs. If there's no production by the end of it, the lease usually expires.
- Held by production (HBP)
- When a producing well keeps a lease alive past its primary term, sometimes for decades.
- Abandoned well
- A well that has stopped producing. It's supposed to be plugged under state rules. Orphaned or poorly plugged wells are a real problem across Texas, and a strong opening image for a thriller.
- Survey / abstract
- Texas land is described by original land surveys and abstract numbers. An old survey map can show where boundaries and ownership used to be.
- Title chain
- The recorded history of who owned a property or mineral interest, and how it passed from one owner to the next. A missing link in the chain can hide a fortune.
- Railroad Commission of Texas
- The state agency that regulates oil and gas in Texas, including drilling permits, well records and plugging, despite its name.
- Pumpjack
- The nodding-donkey pump seen across Texas oilfields. It lifts oil from wells that no longer flow on their own. There's one on the cover of The Lease.
General background for readers. This is not legal advice about your own lease or minerals.
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