Louisiana Mineral Code guide
10-year prescription of nonuse on Louisiana mineral servitudes and royalties
Unlike Texas and other common-law states, a private landowner in Louisiana cannot create a perpetual severed mineral estate. Every mineral sale or reservation creates a mineral servitude or a mineral royalty subject to ten-year liberative prescription of nonuse under the Louisiana Mineral Code (Title 31 of the Revised Statutes).
In one paragraph
Under La. R.S. 31:27, a mineral servitude is extinguished by prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years, counted from the date the servitude is created (La. R.S. 31:28), and the mineral rights revert automatically to the owner of the surface land at the moment prescription accrues. For a mineral servitude, prescription is interrupted either by good-faith drilling or testing operations commenced and continued to a target depth with a reasonable expectation of paying production, even if the well is a dry hole (La. R.S. 31:29), or by actual production (La. R.S. 31:36). For a mineral royalty (La. R.S. 31:85), dry-hole drilling alone does not interrupt prescription: interruption requires actual production (La. R.S. 31:87) or a tested shut-in well capable of producing in paying quantities (La. R.S. 31:90).
1. Mineral servitude vs. mineral royalty interruption
The single most important distinction in a Louisiana mineral runsheet is whether the recorded act created a mineral servitude (the right to explore for and produce minerals, which carries the executive right to lease unless separated) or a mineral royalty (a passive right to share in gross production free of operating costs):
| Event on the Tract or Unit | Mineral Servitude (La. R.S. 31:21 - 31:79) | Mineral Royalty (La. R.S. 31:80 - 31:104) |
|---|---|---|
| Creation date clock start | Runs from the date the servitude is created (La. R.S. 31:28). | Runs from the date the royalty is created (La. R.S. 31:86). |
| Dry hole drilled in good faith to target depth | Interrupts prescription; a new 10-year clock starts on the last day actual drilling or testing operations were conducted (La. R.S. 31:29, 31:30). | Does NOT interrupt prescription; drilling or testing without actual production leaves the original 10-year clock running (La. R.S. 31:87). |
| Actual production | Interrupts prescription on the date production begins and restarts a new 10-year clock on the date production ceases (La. R.S. 31:36). | Interrupts prescription on the date production begins and restarts a new 10-year clock on the date production ceases (La. R.S. 31:87, 31:88). |
| Tested shut-in well capable of paying production | Interrupts prescription on the date the well is shut in after testing (La. R.S. 31:34). | Interrupts prescription on the date the well is shut in after testing (La. R.S. 31:90). |
| Written acknowledgment by surface owner | Interrupts if executed before the 10 years run, identifying the parties and land and expressing intent to interrupt (La. R.S. 31:54, 31:55). | Interrupts under the same formal requirements (La. R.S. 31:93). |
2. What counts as a good-faith dry hole (La. R.S. 31:29)
When a mineral servitude is more than ten years old and has no producing well today, the chain of title depends on whether a well was drilled during each ten-year window. Under La. R.S. 31:29, prescription of nonuse is interrupted by good-faith operations for the discovery and production of minerals. Good faith means the operations were:
- Commenced with a reasonable expectation of discovering and producing minerals in paying quantities at a particular point or depth;
- Continued at the site of operations to that point or depth; and
- Conducted in such a manner that they constitute a single operation although actual drilling or mining is not conducted at all times.
Preparation of the drillsite alone (grading a pad or setting conductor pipe) does not interrupt prescription unless actual drilling is later commenced (La. R.S. 31:30). That is why a parish title search must pull the SONRIS well file (permit, spud date, total depth, and plug-and-abandonment report) alongside the clerk's conveyance books.
3. How a compulsory unit splits prescription across a tract
Suppose a 200-acre mineral servitude covers land in two adjacent sections, and a compulsory unit formed by the Commissioner of Conservation takes in 80 acres of the servitude tract while the unit well is drilled on a neighbor's land inside the unit:
- Unit well on the servitude tract itself: Drilling or production from a unit well physically located on the servitude tract interrupts prescription for the entire contiguous servitude tract, both inside and outside the unit (La. R.S. 31:33, 31:37).
- Unit well off the servitude tract: Drilling or production from a unit well located on other land within the unit interrupts prescription only on the portion of the servitude tract included within the unit (the 80 acres), while prescription continues to run on the 120 acres outside the unit unless the servitude instrument expressly provides otherwise (La. R.S. 31:33, 31:37, 31:75).
4. Written acknowledgment and the public-land exception
Under La. R.S. 31:74, the parties cannot contract for a prescriptive period longer than ten years. The landowner who currently owns the surface (the person who would acquire the minerals upon extinction) may interrupt prescription before it accrues by executing and recording an express written acknowledgment meeting La. R.S. 31:54 and 31:55. However, merely signing a joint oil and gas lease with the mineral owner is not, by itself, an acknowledgment unless it expressly states the intent to interrupt prescription (La. R.S. 31:56).
The La. R.S. 31:149 exception: When land is acquired by the United States, the State of Louisiana, or a subdivision or agency with expropriation authority (such as national forests, wildlife refuges, or floodways) and the vendor reserves minerals, prescription of nonuse does not run against the reserved mineral right so long as the land remains in public or qualifying conservation ownership as defined in La. R.S. 31:149.