Trusted Oil and Gas Legal Guidance for Ohio Landowners
Oil and gas law has been part of our practice since the firm’s founding. Our team, at McCleery Law Firm, is committed to helping landowners navigate the full range of legal, financial, and title challenges that come with oil and gas leasing and mineral sales in Ohio, from lease negotiation to title curative work to royalty disputes.
We provide direct, practical guidance so landowners across Tuscarawas County and eastern Ohio can protect their land, their mineral rights, and their family’s long-term interests. To date, we’ve handled more than $46,000,000 in oil and gas transactions for local landowners.
What Oil & Gas Legal Services Does McCleery Law Firm Provide?
Oil & Gas Lease Negotiation
Review and negotiation of leases and addendums, including the protective clauses most driller-drafted leases leave out.
Mineral Sales Guidance
Guidance on mineral and royalty sales, and whether a sale or a lease is the better fit for your situation.
Oil and Gas Title Curative
Title research and curative filings, including affidavits of abandonment and preservation, and quiet title actions.
Real Property Litigation
Representation to resolve title disputes, underpayment of royalties, and disputed lease terms, including business entities that hold mineral interests.
What We Correct Before You Sign
The standard lease forms used by oil and gas companies are systematically designed to leave open serious vulnerabilities. Here are examples of what we add or fix before you sign:
- Defective post-production cost language. We rewrite deduction clauses that appear to restrict costs but include subtle loopholes so a driller can still take them, sometimes eliminating 25-80% of a royalty check.
- Missing arms-length sale clauses. We add language that stops a driller from selling to a shell company at a discount and pocketing the difference.
- Missing audit clauses. We negotiate audit rights into the lease so you can verify your royalty payments against the producer’s records.
- Below-market pricing. We bring in competing bidders to push signing bonuses up from the $500/acre landmen sometimes offer to the $3,000-$10,000/acre land is worth when properly negotiated.
- Pressure tactics. We push back on artificial deadlines and references to upcoming force pooling hearings so you have time to review your options.
- No water, timber, or surface-use protection. We add clauses that give you recourse if drilling damages your land or water supply.
Title Research and Mineral Rights
We’ve handled oil and gas title research and curative work since the start of the fracking boom in Ohio, tracing chains of title back to the original land patent when necessary and resolving badly fractionalized heirships and multi-layered mineral reservations. As a mineral rights attorney in Ohio, we help landowners clear these issues before they threaten a lease, sale, or royalty payment.
When title issues surface, including questions about abandoned or dormant mineral interests, we file the affidavits, releases, and probate actions needed to clear title and pursue quiet title actions when necessary.
How Can Our Firm Boost Your Lease and Mineral Sale Values?
- First, we can provide advice on how best to monetize your minerals. Most landowners benefit most from a lease, but depending on your situation, a mineral sale or intentional force pooling (which does not require an attorney) may be more advantageous.
- We utilize a competitive bidding process that draws in over a hundred leasing and mineral buying companies.
- Involving Non-Operators in the bidding process significantly boosts the available pricing, as many are willing to pay a premium compared to drillers in order to be minority investors.
- When curative work is required, we may be able to eliminate any issues that may significantly hurt your values.
- We generate an initial bidding price based on numerous factors, including proprietary firm sales data, commodity pricing trends based on this specific region, production data, time until production, existing royalty burdens, and many more.
- While situations will vary, we are often able to boost the values exponentially higher compared to the offer on the table when clients negotiated alone.
Expertise Throughout Eastern Ohio
Our attorneys have negotiated the sale or lease of oil and gas and mineral rights, and handled title work, for landowners across several counties in eastern Ohio, including:
Tuscarawas County
Harrison County
Carroll County
Guernsey County
Noble County
Monroe County
Columbiana County
Jefferson County
Coshocton County
Holmes County
Stark County
Wherever you’re located within these counties, our New Philadelphia oil and gas attorneys are ready to help.
Expertise Throughout Eastern Ohio
Our attorneys have negotiated the sale or lease of oil and gas and mineral rights, and handled title work, for landowners across several counties in eastern Ohio, including:
Tuscarawas County
Harrison County
Carroll County
Guernsey County
Noble County
Monroe County
Columbiana County
Jefferson County
Coshocton County
Holmes County
Stark County
Wherever you’re located within these counties, our New Philadelphia oil and gas attorneys are ready to help.
How Does the Oil & Gas Legal Process Work?
- Review: We review your lease, addendum, offer, or title history.
- Identify the issue: We pinpoint what’s at stake, whether it’s a defective clause, a title defect, or an abandonment question.
- Discuss your options: We walk you through leasing, a mineral sale, or how to respond to force pooling, so you can decide with full information.
- Assist to resolution: We handle the negotiation, filings, or litigation through to close.
Need Help With an Oil and Gas Legal Matter?
Oil and gas leases, mineral sales, and title disputes involve life-changing amounts of money, and the terms you agree to can affect your land and your family for generations. So, it is important to have an experienced oil and gas attorney review your situation before you sign a lease, accept an offer, or respond to a dispute.
An oil and gas attorney negotiates and reviews leases and mineral sales, researches and cures title, and represents landowners in royalty and ownership disputes.
While not legally required, using an experienced oil and gas attorney is strongly recommended if you own a home on the land or own more than five acres. These are sophisticated transactions that frequently involve six or seven figures in value, and there are major risks for unrepresented parties and uneducated counsel.
An audit clause in an oil and gas royalty agreement lets you review a producer’s financial records to verify your royalty payments are accurate. Few drillers include one unless it’s negotiated in.
Title curative work fixes defects in the chain of mineral ownership, such as missing heirs or unresolved reservations. This includes filings like affidavits of abandonment, affidavits of preservation, and quiet title actions.
Mineral rights are the right to lease, sell, and receive royalty checks from oil and gas production. They can separate from surface ownership over generations, which is how minerals are sometimes lost to abandonment.
We serve landowners throughout Tuscarawas, Harrison, Carroll, Guernsey, Noble, Monroe, Columbiana, Jefferson, Coshocton, Stark, and Holmes counties, as well as other areas of the Utica and Marcellus shale.
Note: These answers are based on the general queries. Your specific lease, deed, and title records may change the result — talk to an attorney about your situation.
If you have questions about an offer, your mineral ownership, or a dispute with a driller, talk to an experienced oil and gas lawyer before you sign anything or respond.
Call (330) 407-1418 for a free consultation, or send us a message below.