Based on the LinkedIn excerpts, landman responsibilities fall into 13 main groups. The work spans securing mineral rights, confirming ownership, negotiating agreements, preparing acreage for drilling, and managing the obligations and ownership changes that follow production.
These categories reflect the responsibilities in your source material. An individual landman may specialize in only a few of them, so the categories can also help you segment contacts for outreach.
# Responsibility group Main purpose 1 Mineral leasing and lease acquisition Secure the mineral rights needed for exploration and development 2 Title research and ownership determination Establish who owns the relevant mineral, surface, and leasehold interests 3 Title examination and curative Resolve ownership defects and satisfy title requirements 4 Lease administration and acreage retention Maintain leases and meet contractual obligations 5 Contract negotiation and administration Establish and manage commercial rights and obligations 6 Acquisitions, divestitures, and acreage trades Buy, sell, exchange, or restructure asset interests 7 Surface access and landowner relations Secure surface rights and resolve landowner concerns 8 Rights-of-way, water, and infrastructure Obtain access for roads, utilities, pipelines, and water 9 Drilling and development coordination Ensure land requirements are complete before operations proceed 10 Pooling, unitization, and horizontal development Assemble and document rights across development areas 11 Ownership interests, division orders, and revenue Maintain ownership allocations and resolve payment issues 12 Prospect and asset development support Help identify and evaluate development opportunities 13 Broker management, records, and coordination Manage outside resources and maintain reliable land information
1. Mineral leasing and lease acquisition
Focus: Obtaining agreements that give a company the right to explore for and develop minerals.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Identify mineral owners and prospective acreage for leasing.
- Negotiate oil and gas leases, contingency leases, and associated commercial terms.
- Prepare and execute leases and accompanying memorandums.
- Negotiate lease amendments, modifications, and ratifications.
- Obtain additional rights needed to support planned development.
- Coordinate lease acquisition with corporate land teams, field brokers, landowners, and attorneys.
- Track acquisition progress against leasing goals and drilling schedules.
Profile indicators: Lease acquisition, leasing, lease negotiations, mineral lease acquisition, lease modifications.
2. Title research and ownership determination
Focus: Determining who owns the rights associated with a tract or development area.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Research public and private records to trace ownership.
- Examine mineral, surface, and leasehold ownership.
- Gather, organize, and analyze deeds, leases, and other title documents.
- Prepare abstracts of title, runsheets, and lease takeoffs.
- Build detailed mineral ownership reports and preliminary or cursory ownership reports.
- Update company leasehold ownership reports.
- Research ownership within fee, federal, state, and other government-related lease or unit settings.
- Conduct genealogy research when needed to establish ownership.
- Prepare plats and supporting ownership documentation.
- Identify royalty-related interests, including nonparticipating royalty interests and overriding royalty interests.
Profile indicators: Title research, abstracting, runsheets, mineral ownership reports, mineral title, surface title, leasehold title.
3. Title examination and curative
Focus: Resolving title problems that could delay drilling, transactions, or revenue payments.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Order, review, and analyze title opinions.
- Translate title opinion requirements into actionable curative tasks.
- Identify gaps, defects, or inconsistencies in ownership documentation.
- Work with attorneys, field landmen, owners, and internal teams to resolve title requirements.
- Prepare or obtain legal documents needed to cure title.
- Clear drillsite title within the development schedule.
- Coordinate title approval before releasing wells to operations.
- Resolve ownership issues contributing to suspended revenue.
Profile indicators: Curative, title opinion analysis, drillsite title, legal curative, title requirements.
4. Lease administration and acreage retention
Focus: Keeping existing rights in good standing and understanding what must be done to retain them.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Monitor lease expiration dates and extension options.
- Interpret obligations contained in leases and related contracts.
- Track rentals, minimum royalty payments, and other required payments.
- Review continuous drilling obligations and negotiate deferrals where applicable.
- Monitor third-party production supporting held-by-production acreage.
- Maintain ownership information for retained and producing acreage.
- Track royalty and bonus revenue associated with mineral interests.
- Coordinate with other departments to maintain consistent lease records.
Profile indicators: Lease maintenance, lease obligations, lease expirations, HBP, rentals, land administration.
5. Contract negotiation and administration
Focus: Negotiating and managing agreements governing development and relationships between companies.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Draft, review, negotiate, and administer joint operating agreements.
- Prepare JOA supplements and contract briefs.
- Negotiate farmouts, term assignments, and other development arrangements.
- Prepare purchase and sale agreements and supporting assignments.
- Negotiate surface, water, road-use, and disposal agreements.
- Analyze contractual rights, restrictions, and ongoing obligations.
- Review agreements for consistency with corporate guidelines and applicable legal requirements.
- Coordinate contract preparation and interpretation with attorneys and counterparties.
Profile indicators: Contracts, JOAs, farmouts, contract administration, agreement negotiation.
6. Acquisitions, divestitures, and acreage trades
Focus: Changing the company’s mineral or leasehold position through transactions.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Negotiate purchases and sales of mineral rights or leasehold interests.
- Evaluate opportunities to lease, participate in, or trade mineral interests.
- Negotiate acreage trades with other operators.
- Prepare transaction agreements and assignments.
- Conduct title and ownership due diligence.
- Coordinate due diligence projects with brokers, attorneys, and internal teams.
- Identify title issues requiring resolution before closing.
- Facilitate transaction documentation and closing coordination.
Profile indicators: A&D, acquisitions, divestitures, mineral acquisitions, trades, transaction due diligence.
7. Surface access and landowner relations
Focus: Securing surface permissions and maintaining relationships that support operations.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Identify surface owners, tenants, and authorized representatives.
- Negotiate surface use agreements.
- Negotiate and settle surface damage payments.
- Maintain relationships with surface owners and mineral owners.
- Explain planned development and horizontal drilling activities.
- Address concerns arising during drilling and completion.
- Coordinate communications among owners, agents, tenants, contractors, and company personnel.
- Confirm that required surface agreements are in place before construction.
Profile indicators: Surface landman, surface use agreements, surface damages, landowner relations.
8. Rights-of-way, water, and infrastructure
Focus: Securing the land rights needed for supporting infrastructure.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Obtain rights-of-way and easements for access roads.
- Secure routes for electrical lines and production flowlines.
- Negotiate rights for saltwater disposal pipelines and related facilities.
- Obtain off-lease access or drilling rights through appropriate agreements.
- Negotiate road-use, water-use, and surface/subsurface easement agreements.
- Locate water sources for drilling and completion.
- Secure temporary waterline routes.
- Support water infrastructure, recycling, and disposal arrangements.
Profile indicators: ROW, easements, water agreements, SWD agreements, infrastructure land.
9. Drilling and development coordination
Focus: Completing land-related work in time for drilling, construction, and completion.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Coordinate with engineers and geologists on well locations and horizontal well paths.
- Help position pads, roads, tank batteries, electrical lines, and flowlines.
- Conduct preliminary location reviews.
- Coordinate surveyors and well-location staking.
- Help adjust locations to avoid obstructions and existing pipelines.
- Confirm that title, surface rights, and required agreements are complete.
- Assist regulatory teams with permit filings.
- Coordinate land-related facility, road, and access permitting.
- Release wells to operations after required land work is completed.
Profile indicators: Drilling support, pre-drill, drillsite clearance, staking, development landman.
10. Pooling, unitization, and horizontal development
Focus: Establishing the rights and agreements needed to develop multiple tracts or interests together.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Pool or unitize mineral interests.
- Prepare pooling agreements and unit designations.
- Create new unit designations and related documentation.
- Negotiate production sharing and production allocation agreements.
- Negotiate long lateral unit agreements.
- Address land issues associated with horizontal development.
- Coordinate ownership and contractual requirements across affected tracts.
Profile indicators: Pooling, unitization, unit agreements, production sharing, allocation agreements, horizontal development.
11. Ownership interests, division orders, and revenue
Focus: Maintaining accurate ownership allocations for costs and production revenue.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Calculate working interests and net revenue interests.
- Identify partners and ownership interests for upcoming wells.
- Build and maintain division of interest records and workbooks.
- Prepare and administer division orders.
- Support ownership information used in joint interest billing and revenue decks.
- Process ownership changes.
- Resolve title issues affecting payment.
- Review suspended revenue and support its release.
- Assist with escheat reviews and related ownership matters.
Profile indicators: Division orders, DOI, WI/NRI calculations, revenue ownership, suspense, ownership changes.
12. Prospect and asset development support
Focus: Helping the company decide where and how to develop its acreage.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Support prospect creation.
- Follow area leasing and drilling trends.
- Assess how nearby activity affects the company’s development position.
- Work with asset teams to evaluate leasing, participation, and trade options.
- Identify ownership or acreage constraints affecting development.
- Support operated and non-operated assets.
- Track prospect expenditures.
- Provide land information that helps prioritize development opportunities.
Profile indicators: Prospect generation, asset development, acreage strategy, non-operated assets.
13. Broker management, records, and coordination
Focus: Organizing people, information, and deliverables across land projects.
Detailed responsibilities:
- Vet and select field brokers, vendors, and subcontractors.
- Supervise leasing and title brokers.
- Manage field landman crews.
- Schedule third-party work for pre-drill and post-drill activities.
- Coordinate with attorneys, government officials, regulatory teams, and asset teams.
- Maintain detailed records and management reports.
- Track completion of land tasks against drilling deadlines.
- Maintain ownership workbooks, maps, and land-system records.
Profile indicators: Broker management, field supervision, land management, project coordination, land records.
How to use these groups for outreach
For contacting landmen, the most useful distinction is their primary responsibility, followed by any secondary responsibilities.
Contact segment Responsibilities most relevant to their work In-house development landmen Leasing, contracts, acreage trades, development coordination, pooling Field landmen and leasing brokers Owner identification, lease acquisition, title research, field coordination Title and curative specialists Ownership research, title opinions, curative, drillsite clearance Surface landmen Surface agreements, damages, ROW, water, landowner relations A&D landmen Acquisitions, divestitures, trades, due diligence, transaction agreements Land administration and division order specialists Lease obligations, ownership interests, division orders, revenue issues Land managers Broker oversight, priorities, budgets, schedules, coordination across functions
Author: phinds