In the world of gas and oil, a landman is an individual who works for companies that perform exploration and production of these elements – but it goes much further than that. A qualified landman also researches mineral rights and titles for the purpose of negotiating with property owners for those aforementioned mineral rights on behalf of a company wishing to exploit the minerals beneath the surface of privately owned land.
Put simply, a landman represents a middleman between the stakeholders of an oil and gas operation and private landowners.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the role a qualified landman plays when verifying mineral rights ownership because, after all, a landman’s role requires not only legal knowledge but the talents of a salesperson and an uncanny ability to dig deep into courthouse records.
Ten Cow Holdings Fun Fact: The advent of “hydraulic fracturing” – essentially, the fracturing of bedrock – has yielded additional opportunities for landmen within the past decade.
The responsibilities of a landman can be broken down into three categories: research, administrative and legal, and this list of responsibilities, as we touched on in the very beginning of this post, range from determining mineral rights to negotiating a mineral lease.
Let’s now take a brief look at what’s involved within these categories.
Research
- A landman must be an expert in researching courthouse documents, using the information to identify rights-of-way and negotiate joint ventures, leases and other oil and gas industry agreements.
- Some landmen operate “in-house” (directly for a specific oil or gas company) for the purpose of consolidating, organizing and analyzing title documentation for the assessments of rights.
- Landmen maintain internal title data and are responsible for performing updates, including curing errors and omissions on a title or lease.
Administrative
- A landman provides administrative support to the title department of an oil and gas company, helping to keep records updated and organized.
- A landman supports the drilling/operations staff in a myriad of ways.
- A landman is part of, and works on, a geological development team.
- Landmen manage contract personnel, thus creating work assignments for lease acquisitions.
- Landmen prepare reports on the status of rights acquisitions and present them to management.
Legal
- A landman boasts experience in property or land management, monitors and records rental receipts and develops lease agreements.
- A landman creates and administers specialized lease documentation.
- Landmen develop an advanced knowledge of a wide range of land transactions, from farm-ins/farm-outs to a plethora of other contracts.
With the development of ever more diverse forms of energy resources, the landman profession is poised to live on for years to come. For additional information about this topic or to discuss buying mineral rights or selling mineral rights, contact Ten Cow Holdings LLC by calling (210) 960-1564.
