landman.trainingWorkbook · Louisiana Mineral Code Supplement

Louisiana Mineral Servitudes & Prescription Workbook.

Why you cannot own a perpetual severed mineral estate in Louisiana: how mineral servitudes are created, how 10-year prescription of nonuse extinguishes them, and how unit operations interrupt prescription.

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Topic: Mineral servitudes, 10-year prescription of nonuse, and unit interruption
Statutes cited: La. R.S. 31:16, 31:21, 31:27 to 31:41, and 31:89
Cost: Free self-study

Workbook checklist

Find the exact date each mineral reservation or mineral deed created a mineral servitude.
Check SONRIS well spud, completion, and unit production dates within every 10-year window.
Verify whether the unit well stood on the servitude tract or off-tract inside a Commissioner's unit.

MethodMineral servitudes and the 10-year clock

Key rules

Distinguish common-law perpetual mineral estates from Louisiana mineral servitudes.
Track the 10-year prescription of nonuse from the date the servitude is created.
Apply the on-tract vs. off-tract unit well rule under La. R.S. 31:37 and 31:89.

Under the Louisiana Mineral Code (La. R.S. Title 31), oil and gas in place are not owned separately from the soil. When a landowner sells or reserves mineral rights, the conveyance creates a mineral servitude (the right to explore for and produce minerals), which extinguishes automatically if not used for 10 consecutive years.

Creation starts the 10-year clock. On the date a landowner signs a deed reserving minerals (or conveying minerals to a buyer), a 10-year prescription of nonuse clock starts running under La. R.S. 31:27 and 31:28.
Interruption by good-faith drilling or production. Under La. R.S. 31:29, prescription is interrupted by good-faith operations for the discovery and production of minerals (spudding a well drilled to a depth where minerals might reasonably be discovered, even if dry) or by actual production, which restarts a fresh 10-year clock after production or operations cease.
On-tract vs. off-tract Commissioner's unit wells. If a compulsory unit well is drilled ON the servitude tract, it interrupts prescription for the entire contiguous servitude tract (both inside and outside the unit). If the unit well is drilled OFF the servitude tract on a neighbor's land, it interrupts prescription ONLY for the portion of the servitude tract included inside the unit boundary (La. R.S. 31:37).
Mineral royalties prescribe too. A severed mineral royalty in Louisiana is also subject to 10-year prescription of nonuse, but unlike a mineral servitude, a dry hole does not interrupt prescription on a mineral royalty: actual production is required (La. R.S. 31:85 and 31:87).

Mineral servitude: A charge on land in favor of a person other than the landowner giving the right to explore for and produce minerals (La. R.S. 31:21).
Prescription of nonuse: Extinguishment of a mineral servitude or mineral royalty after 10 consecutive years without qualifying use or production, returning the rights to the current landowner.
Contiguous vs. non-contiguous: A single deed covering two tracts that do not touch (or only touch at a single point) creates two separate mineral servitudes that must each be interrupted independently (La. R.S. 31:64 and 31:73).
Judgment of Possession: The Louisiana succession court decree recognizing the heirs or legatees of a deceased owner and sending them into possession of the decedent's property.

Sources. Louisiana Mineral Code, La. R.S. 31:16 through 31:104.

Worked ExampleOff-tract unit well prescription split

Other workbooks

Worked problem. In 2012, Landowner S sells a contiguous 200-acre tract in DeSoto Parish to Buyer B, reserving all mineral rights (creating a 200-acre mineral servitude). In 2018, the Commissioner of Conservation forms a 640-acre Haynesville unit that includes the North 120 acres of the tract (leaving the South 80 acres outside the unit), and the unit well is spudded in 2019 on a neighbor's tract inside the unit. No well is ever drilled on the 200-acre tract itself. Who owns the minerals in 2025?

N 120 ac: S · S 80 ac: B

Because the 2019 unit well was located off the servitude tract, it interrupted prescription only as to the 120 acres inside the unit under La. R.S. 31:37. The outside 80 acres prescribed in 2022 (10 years after the 2012 reservation) and merged into Buyer B's surface ownership.

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