Acquisition of Oil and Gas Leases

This paper will deal with legal problems involved in acquiring fee leases and noncompetitive Federal leases. These problems will be discussed from the point of view of a landman seeking the lease.

Many of the points here considered are points of general law rather than points of law peculiar to oil and gas leasing. No effort will be made to research exhaustively general points of law discussed, although in some instances reference may be made to sources where the authorities are collected. Where applicable oil and gas cases have been found, they will be cited. On some points detailed comment will be made regarding the law in the Rocky Mountain Region states of Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

I. FEE LEASES

A. Form

Producers 88. The origin of the identification Producers 88 or 88 is well known.1 Its significance has, however, long since been lost and before any lease form is used it should be examined for its content whether or not it bears the 88 identification. The clauses of an oil and gas lease have been discussed exhaustively in papers heretofore presented at institutes on oil and gas law of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and the [136] Southwestern Legal Foundation.2 Only two of these clauses will be mentioned here.

[137] Granting Clause. The question of whether hard rock minerals are covered by an oil and gas l