Author Archives: John

Oil & Gas Leases

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I’m getting more and more calls and emails from landowners wanting advice about a lease they’ve just received from a landman or oil producer wanting to develop their land for oil and/or gas production. These inquiries are a challenge because there are very few short answers. A proper “review and comment” on their lease would involve considerably more time than I can afford to contribute for free, which generally means more time than they want to pay for.

The best short answer may be to click on over to the National Association of Royalty Owners Store and order one or more of their publications. They’re a lot cheaper than an hour of my time. There are several excellent choices, from Look Before You Lease to NARO’s Great Texas Lease Mark-Up Handbook and even Oil and Gas Law in a Nutshell which I think I have on a bookshelf somewhere around here. And, of course, there are a few comments about leases in previous articles in my blog; search for “landowner” or “producer’s 88” or “landowner’s guide”. Finally, don’t forget your friends Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. They’ll lead you to other websites and blogs with a wealth of information.

Perspective

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I just now deleted a paragraph that constituted my first attempt at this article. It was too vague and nobody would have got the point. I recently came across the website of the Kansas Historical Society, called Kansaspedia. Aside from sheer interest in finding a lot of things I didn’t know about, the site got me thinking about historical perspective. It seems to me it doesn’t much enter into our daily lives any more; our decisions rarely take it into account. Maybe we ought to try to do that more.

Citizenship

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I stopped at the post office this morning to pick up mail. When I got out of the car, I noticed that the lanyard on the flagpole had apparently slipped and the US flag was on the ground. As I approached, at least six people looked at it and walked on by. When I got to it, I picked it up and hung it on the hook, went inside and told a postal employee about it. They immediately got somebody out to re-raise the flag.

The people who just walked past the flag on the ground really got to me. My thoughts turned from them to the people I’ve seen toss empty cups, hamburger wrappers, and other trash out the window of their car. Then I thought about the people I’ve seen kick trash on a sidewalk instead of picking it up and putting it in a trash container two or three feet away. Then I thought about, well, I’ll just say my mind didn’t run short of more examples along the same lines.

Ultimately, though, my thoughts turned to the founding fathers. I’ve often thought they must be turning over in their graves with what’s become of the government. But, this time, I thought they must be turning over in their graves with what’s become of the citizens they created this country for.

“The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.” – United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 (The Flag Code), §8.b.

Article about the Betsy Ross Flag. I haven’t personally verified the information, but you might find it interesting. I found it interesting to ponder the possibility that it might’ve been six-point stars rather than five-point, inasmuch as six-point stars now seem to be viewed by many people as a jewish symbol.