B:Y GENERAL
AS
Honorable Bascom Giles
Commissioner
General Land Office
Austin, Texas
Dear Sir: Opinion No. O-5700
Re: Power of Commissioner of General
Land Office to accept for filing or
to approve mineral lease with pool-
ing clause.
Reference ts made to your letter of recent date to which you attached
a copy of an oil and gas lease relating thereto. Your letter is as follows:
“There has been tendered to this department for filing the en-
closed mineral lease. This lease was executed by the land owner on
a small tract of scrap land sold under Chapter 271, Acts of the 42nd
Legislature, Regular Session, 1931. This law and the application to
purchase provide for a reservation to the State of a free royalty of
l/8 of the sulphur and l/l6 of the other minerals.
“The lease in paragraph five (5) thereof provides for pooling
or combining this tract with other tracts whether owned by the les-
see or not for the purpose of creating drilling units, and as to the
payment of royalty the lease provides as follows:
“‘In the event production of oil, gas, or other minerals is ob-
tained upon any unit or units created hereunder Lessor shall receive
and will accept on account of any such production, regardless of whe-
ther or not such pro,duction is on any part of the land herein above
described, a royalty equal to such portion of a l/8 royalty as the
number of acres out of this lease and included in any such operating
unit bears to the total number of acres included in the respective op-
erating unit. ’
“If the above provision in the lease is binding on the State, the
State would share in the production from the unit on the basis of l/8
of the sulphur and l/16 of all other minerals figured in the proportion
that the acreage in this tract bears to the total acreage in the unit.
Honorable Bascom Giles, Page 2 - O-5700
With the above facts in mind, I would like to have% %enef&I:~f~~!:‘~~
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your opinion on the following question:
“(1) Does the Commissioner of the General Land Office have
the legal authority to file in this office or to:gijli~o’i~‘a~‘~in2~al.‘l.~g~~
such as the above providing for a combination of a tra&“m’whYch-‘the
State has a mineral interest fixed by law with othe&racts,, ‘in’whtch~’
the State has no interest, in order to form a drilling unit,?’ ,’
Case (1o2 s w ZQ7),
Sales Act of 1931) as fixing the
and l/16 of all &her minerals,
of the Bonus and rental for a
lease executed l$‘thelan$’ owner, We have also followed this con-
‘It i;.,~~hl:ib~ttck~‘~$rt.bi ise’c’t’,dn.i~,~f’~iiusi’Bil~ qbrd~idCs bls ,fol-
lows :
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,““i’,‘i ;“ProvibedT ‘however, that’nothing ‘in this Act shali be construed
““a’s,i%m’dvingfrom oi’~ntcrfering,wtth tlie”rtghts and ‘powers of the
” sur’fac’e ‘own& ofian,di:sold ‘or to ‘be hereafter’ s’old ~by the State, with
“a ‘min&ap ~re’servation,, to act. as’ agent of’the State in making’ and exe-
cuting mineral leases covering and ‘a’ffecting ,such lands, but the auth-
ority of such surface owner shaDremain the same as provided by law,
a~nd’