Dave Shipman Director
The various trusts under the direction of the Commissioners of the Land Office own 1,085,000 mineral acres scattered throughout the state in 74 of the 77 counties. The Minerals Management Division (MMD) staff is responsible for oversight on approximately 5,000 wells and administration of approximately 4,000 leases.
A great deal of effort is required to maximize the return on the mineral assets. Maintenance of the mineral and leasehold inventory is critical. The staff must know what acreage the Trusts owns and what is leased, with no margin for error. This task is greatly complicated by the fact that School Land Trust leases often hold only certain depths and formations.
The Trust acreage must be available for exploration. The MMD holds six lease auctions per year. A lease can be issued by the MMD in less than sixty days. In comparison, the Federal Bureau of Land Management takes at least one year to issue a lease. Before a tract can be leased, the mineral and leasehold inventories must be researched to make sure that the Trust owns it and that it is not currently leased. Again, there is no margin for error. Once the research is done, a tract is advertised according to statute. On the day of the sale the bids are opened with the bidders present. By the time the sale is over, the trust could be $3,000,000 richer. The issuance of a lease will hopefully result in the drilling of productive wells. The staff geologist monitors all drilling activity in the State to insure that the trust assets are protected from offset drainage. All properties are monitored to insure that any lease that ceases production is either returned to production or plugged, cleaned up and released. The staff evaluates proposals for secondary recovery units and negotiates for terms optimal to the Trust.
Since the CLO is the place of record for School Land Trust leases, the staff analyzes all title assignments to insure that our consent to the transfer of interest is in the best interest of the Trust.
The MMD staff has worked diligently in the area of electronic automation, saving the agency both time and money and making our services more user friendly to the industry we serve. Sale notices are now formatted and sent to county newspapers electronically. Sale notices and tabulations are available almost instantly on our web site. This internet information is free and much more timely than mail notices. The MMD staff is currently working in cooperation with Oklahoma State University to develop Geographic Information System software that will allow the staff and industry to view our databases in many different formats. The MMD has also recently streamlined our bonding procedure and our seismic permitting.
The MMD continues to explore new and creative ways to increase revenues. Its entrepreneurial activities include a gas marketing program and the management of minerals owned by other state agencies and Oklahoma State University.