Six steps of land work, what is read in each, and where land work stops and other professionals and agencies take over.
The sequence
Six steps of land work
Each step says what is read and where.
Define the area and depth interval
The work starts from a written list of tracts and a top and bottom depth. Leases, depth severances and units are each read for the depth they cover, so the interval is set before any record is read. What the area is comes from the person asking, not from a source's regional geography.
Land and rights deskRead the county and agency records
Deeds, leases and releases are read from the county records. In Texas the Railroad Commission says well records for all districts from 1964 to the present are available through its imaged records query, and that older records, about 1920 to the mid 1960s, are on microfilm unit jackets. It says well log images received since July 2004 are online, and production data from 1993 to the present. The Public GIS Viewer shows wells, pipelines and surveys on a map view. In Louisiana the Office of Conservation says all engineering and issued permit documents received since 2000 have been imaged by serial number.
Land and rights deskName interest holders and counterparties
Surface owners, mineral owners, lessees and operators come from the deeds, leases and agency filings. Under the Commission's rule, the Form P-4 establishes the operator of an oil lease, gas well or other well and certifies responsibility for regulatory compliance, including plugging. The Commission says it has no authority over lease and royalty matters or property rights matters.
Land and rights deskCheck leases, units and wells
The lease and any release are read from the county record. Texas well records contain applications to drill, completion reports and plugging reports. Texas rule 3.15 defines an inactive well as an unplugged well that has been spudded or equipped with cemented casing and has had no reported production, disposal, injection or other permitted activity for more than 12 months. The definition itself does not say how it applies to a geothermal well. In Louisiana, all orders are imaged by order number and reflect unitization matters among other things, and unit survey plats, required only for units that produced, are mostly imaged and indexed by field order.
Land and rights deskWork out access, surface use and easements
Surface deeds and easement instruments are read to see who must be asked for access, and for what use. A pipeline on the agency's map view is a location to check against its easement instrument. Owners are asked, never assumed.
Land and rights deskWrite the brief with the gaps visible
The brief lists what each record shows, its source and the date read. It also lists what was not found or not yet read. The project brief worksheet shows the format.
Land and rights desk
Sources: Oil and Gas Well Records, Public GIS Viewer User Guide and 16 Texas Administrative Code chapter 3, Railroad Commission of Texas; Records Research Guide, Louisiana Office of Conservation. Read October 4, 2026.
Where land work stops
Three kinds of work belong to others: reservoir and engineering work, agency permits and filings, and surveying and mapping. The brief is handed on at that point. We are not engineers, and nothing here describes an outcome.
The Railroad Commission lists the forms for geothermal energy production wells as W-1, W-2/G-1, GT-1 and GT-2, and for an injection permit application GT-5 and H-1A. It says injection wells used for the production of geothermal or geopressured water and their by-products must be permitted before injection begins. Under its geothermal energy operator requirements, the page says an operator must have an active Form P-5 (Organization Report) and must be the Form P-4 (leaseholder) of an on-schedule well. The agency gives rules 3.1, 3.13, 3.14 and 3.46 of Title 16 of the Texas Administrative Code (16 TAC) as examples of Oil and Gas Division rules generally applicable to a geothermal injection well unless specifically stated otherwise. Among the attachments it lists are a map and list of adjacent landowners within one-half mile of the proposed well or facility, and proof of notice, including notice of the application to all operators within one-half mile and to all adjacent surface owners. Identifying those owners is land work. The filing is not.
The Commission page lists forms and requirements. It does not describe how any application is decided.
Source: Geothermal, Railroad Commission of Texas. Read October 4, 2026.
What depends on each interest holder
Each person or company named in the brief is a separate question. For each one the brief lists the instrument that shows the interest, the area and depth interval that instrument covers, and what would be asked of that holder.
- A surface owner is asked about access, surface use and an easement.
- A mineral owner is asked about the minerals in the depth interval and about any lease on them.
- A lessee or operator of record is asked about its lease, wells and facilities in the area.
What a holder agrees to is that holder's decision. The brief does not assume it, and it gives no view on who owns what.
What a gap looks like
A gap is a question the records searched do not answer. It stays in the brief with the record searched and the date.
| Item | What the records show | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| Lease L1 on Tract 4 | A recorded lease and a later assignment. | No release found in the county index searched. Whether the lease still stands is open. |
| Well W2 | An agency well file with a completion report. A Form P-4 names an operator of record. | No plugging report in the file. The operator's current address is not on the record. |
| Surface of Tract 3 | A deed to a surface owner. | No easement instrument found for the pipeline drawn on the agency map. |
Each row names what was read and what was left unanswered. The reader sees the gap and decides what to ask next.