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For developers and heat or power buyers
The land and rights work a geopressured project needs, and what to say to start
Two readers share this page. Developers need a land package for a defined area and depth. Buyers of heat or power need only say where, for what and how much.
Developers
The land package
It is built from the oil and gas record and the county records, with the gaps left visible.
- The rights stack for a defined area and depth interval: surface, oil and gas minerals, leases, depth severances.
- Who holds each interest, as the record names them.
- Existing oil and gas lease and unit status, and wells and records from public sources.
- Access, surface use and easements.
- A list of open questions, with sources and dates.
We read records and organize what they say. We give no engineering, resource, feasibility or ownership conclusions and promise no outcome.
Who leases
State and federal land differ from private land
Structure, duration and approval steps only, as the texts state it. Rental, royalty and bonus figures are left to the sources.
| Land | What the text says |
|---|---|
| Texas, permanent school fund land | On direction of the General Land Office (GLO) commissioner, the School Land Board may lease this land, excluding wildlife refuges and recreational areas, for geothermal energy and associated resources, and sets the lease terms. The GLO says it executes geothermal leases by direct negotiation for State and Federal institutions and by sealed bid for all others. |
| Texas, Relinquishment Act land | Section 155.40 of Title 31 of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) defines these as the school and asylum lands the rule describes, sold with a mineral classification or reservation between September 1, 1895, and August 21, 1931, and extends the term to other lands patented with all minerals reserved to the state and expressly made subject to the same leasing terms. It says these lands are leased by the surface owner as agent for the state. Under section 155.44 the lease is negotiated by the surface owner and the prospective lessee on a form prepared by the GLO, and is not effective until the GLO approves it and it is filed there. |
| Louisiana, state and public-domain land | The State Mineral and Energy Board has exclusive authority to lease state-owned and public-domain lands, including road beds, water bottoms and lands adjudicated to the state at tax sale, for geothermal resources and byproducts. Louisiana Revised Statutes (R.S.) 30:805 says that applications for state geothermal leases, inspection of the lands, the quantity of land in one lease, advertisement for bids, bidding procedures, and the board's authority to accept or reject bids are governed by R.S. 30:125 through 30:129. This holds except as the geothermal chapter otherwise specifically provides. All state geothermal leases have a maximum primary term of ten years and continue as long as geothermal operations are conducted or resources are produced or utilized in commercial quantities. |
Section 30:806(D) says the term rental or royalty obtained by the state from a geothermal lease shall not affect or limit the compensation negotiated by the owners of adjoining or nearby property which may be affected or exploited by the lessee.
Federal land is a separate system. Subject to section 1014, the Geothermal Steam Act lets the Secretary of the Interior lease geothermal resources in lands the Secretary administers, including public, withdrawn and acquired lands; in any national forest or other lands administered by the Department of Agriculture through the Forest Service, including public, withdrawn and acquired lands; and in lands conveyed by the United States subject to a reservation to the United States of the geothermal resources. Section 1014 says leases shall not be issued for lands administered under the Act of August 25, 1916 (the National Park Service Organic Act), lands in a national recreation area, a fish hatchery administered by the Secretary, a wildlife refuge, wildlife range, game range, wildlife management area or waterfowl production area, lands acquired or reserved to protect fish and wildlife threatened with extinction, or tribally or individually owned Indian trust or restricted lands. For some withdrawn or acquired lands it allows a lease only on terms the Secretary prescribes or with the consent of the head of the department concerned. The Secretary shall accept nominations of land to be leased at any time from qualified companies and individuals. Leasing is by competitive sale to the highest responsible qualified bidder, with exceptions the Act lists, such as noncompetitive leasing of a tract that drew no bids in a sale. Where the surface has passed from federal ownership but the minerals were reserved to the United States, section 1020 of the Act says geothermal resources in those lands shall not be developed or produced except under geothermal leases made under the chapter. The same section sets a court procedure. If the Secretary of the Interior finds that development, or production from a well already drilled on those lands, is imminent, the Secretary reports it. The Act then authorizes and directs a proceeding, brought for the United States in the federal district court where the lands lie, to quiet the title of the United States in those resources. If the court determines that the reservation of minerals included the geothermal resources, it is to enjoin their production except under the chapter. The proviso says the Secretary's duty to report and the duty to bring the proceeding cease upon a judicial determination that the federal mineral reservation does not include geothermal resources. The section text at the source puts one qualifying word on that determination. The Act says the United States reserves the ownership of, and the right to extract under such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, oil, hydrocarbon gas and helium from all geothermal resources produced from lands leased under the Act, in accordance with presently applicable laws. It adds that whenever that right is exercised, it is to be exercised so as to cause no substantial interference with the production of geothermal resources from those lands. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regulations say a geothermal site license for a utilization facility is not needed on private land or on split estate land where the United States does not own the surface (section 3273.11 of Title 43 of the Code of Federal Regulations, CFR).
BLM describes its delegated geothermal leasing authority as reaching lands with geothermal potential in 11 Western states and Alaska. The BLM page names neither Texas nor Louisiana. The BLM page describes the BLM program and names no tract. It does not say whether federal minerals in other states can be leased.
Sources: CO2 Sequestration, Water, and Geothermal Energy Leasing, Texas General Land Office; Texas Natural Resources Code, Section 141.073, Texas Legislature; 31 TAC 155.40 and 155.44, School Land Board; La. R.S. 30:804, 30:805, 30:806, Louisiana State Legislature; 30 U.S.C. Chapter 23, Geothermal Steam Act, U.S. Government Publishing Office; 43 CFR Part 3200, eCFR; Geothermal Energy: Regional Information, Bureau of Land Management. Read October 4, 2026.
What developers can send
- A target area: a county or parish, or a rough outline.
- The depth interval of interest, in feet.
- Project type and size, with units.
- Timeline, and any site control so far, such as an option or a lease.
- What you already have, and what you do not know.
Unknowns can stay unknown. A person at Our Landmen LLC reads the request and answers by email.
For heat or power buyers
Tell us where the heat or power would be used, what it would be used for, and the annual need in megawatt-hours per year (MWh per year) or million British thermal units per year (MMBtu per year). We can identify landowners and mineral interests near a location you name, and we can organize what the records show. We do not supply or promise heat or power, and we do not say whether a resource exists near you.