Mineral rights
in Louisiana.

Louisiana is unique among US states for following civil law rather than common law, a heritage of French and Spanish colonial rule. That legal tradition has real consequences for how mineral rights work. Louisiana does not recognize a perpetual mineral estate the way Texas or Oklahoma does. Instead, mineral rights exist as a mineral servitude on the surface estate, and that servitude prescribes (expires) after 10 years of non-use. If a tract has had no production or qualifying operations for 10 years, the mineral servitude reverts to the surface owner.

Almost all of Louisiana's modern production comes from the Haynesville Shale, a deep dry-gas play centered in the northwest parishes (Louisiana uses parishes instead of counties; the structure is functionally the same as a county). DeSoto, Caddo, Red River, Bossier, Bienville, and Sabine parishes account for most of the active drilling. The Haynesville is one of the deepest commercial shale plays in the country, with horizontal wells targeting depths of 11,000 to 14,000 feet.

Louisiana mineral inheritor work is shaped by the prescription rule. Many families discover that mineral interests they assumed were theirs prescribed back to the surface owner decades ago, and many surface owners discover the opposite, that mineral interests their family thought they had lost are actually still alive because operations continued just long enough. Sorting out who owns what in Louisiana takes care, and we are happy to do that work.

The Haynesville is the only Louisiana play that consistently shows up in mineral rights conversations today. Cotton Valley conventional gas, Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, and legacy Gulf Coast production all add modest activity in different parts of the state.

Six parishes carry the bulk of the active Haynesville drilling. Several others have older Cotton Valley production or emerging Tuscaloosa Marine activity. If your minerals are in a Louisiana parish not listed here, please reach out and tell us where you are.

Louisiana's operator landscape is dominated by a few large Haynesville specialists. Royalty checks from Louisiana minerals are most often issued by the operators below.

Louisiana's regulatory framework reflects its civil law tradition. The state has compulsory unitization, a clear forced pooling regime through the Office of Conservation, and the unique mineral servitude prescription rule that does not exist anywhere else in the United States. Understanding all three is important for any Louisiana mineral owner.