Unlike Texas or common-law states, a mineral reservation in Louisiana creates merely a Mineral Servitude. Under Article 27 of the Louisiana Mineral Code, the servitude extinguishes after ten years of non-use, automatically reuniting the mineral rights with the surface owner. We audit servitude prescription, research parish conveyances, and cure title across North and South Louisiana.
Determine whether a Louisiana mineral servitude remains active, is nearing statutory forfeiture, or has extinguished by operation of law. Export the completed Servitude Prescription Audit Schedule (.CSV).
Our title landmen examine conveyor and mortgage indexes across all 64 Louisiana Clerks of Court.
Title examination for ultra-deep Haynesville and Bossier gas units. Resolving unitization orders issued by the Louisiana Office of Conservation and cross-checking historical Cotton Valley and Rodessa production records.
Full-period 50-year mineral runsheets tracking non-use lapses, dry hole spud affidavits, and surface reunions across historic timber and agricultural tracts.
Auditing environmental regulatory dockets, salt-water pit disclosures, and historical operator liability chains to protect landowners and operators from legacy contamination claims.
Tracking unit orders issued by the Commissioner of Conservation. Verifying whether off-tract unit drilling successfully interrupts prescription on the subject servitude under Article 33.
Need a 30-year or 50-year parish title runsheet, an Affidavit of Non-Production, or a mineral servitude audit? Submit your section, township, and range details below.
No. Under Article 73 of the Louisiana Mineral Code, the 10-year period of liberative prescription cannot be extended by contract or agreement at the time the servitude is created. Any attempt to create a perpetual mineral servitude or extend the prescription window past 10 years in the initial deed is null and void as against Louisiana public policy.
Under Article 33 of the Louisiana Mineral Code, if a portion of the tract burdened by a servitude is included within a compulsory drilling unit established by the Commissioner of Conservation, operations on the unit will interrupt prescription on the portion of the servitude included in the unit, but not on the portion outside the unit, unless the unit well was actually drilled on the burdened tract itself.
Under Article 29, the drilling operations must be commenced in objective good faith, conducted to a depth at which there was a reasonable expectation of discovering minerals in paying quantities, and completed with reasonable diligence. A formal recorded affidavit of good-faith operations supported by well logs or DNR records is required by title attorneys.
While extinction occurs automatically by operation of law upon the passage of ten years without use, title companies and operators require record evidence. The surface owner must prepare and record an Affidavit of Non-Production and Extinction of Mineral Servitude reciting the lack of operations, accompanied by a certificate or notice from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (SONRIS).