This may be a stupid question but is ratification the same thing as modification? I’m asking because I got the same letter and am trying to learn. I am a new mr owner and the lease we have dates back to 1968.
“In terms of the oil and gas industry, ratification of a lease is the term for requesting acceptance of an existing lease agreement, with or without changes, from landowners who have purchased parcels to which the original leaseholder gave permission to drill and produce.”
Be very careful about any changes to the lease as they are not often in the mineral owners’ favor. Best to get legal advice before signing any ratification as you may be able to get better terms than what they are initially offering.
@Jeannie_McCollum. There’s probably not a functional difference between those two terms in this industry. A ratification is only saying that you’re ratifying the old lease, or in other words, saying that the old lease is still effective and you expect to be bound by its terms. A modification is any change to the old lease. In the industry, though, you’ll probably find people using the terms interchangeably. They shouldn’t, but they do. Keep in mind that the title of the document does not control anything. If the document is titled a Ratification but the terms of the document modify a lot of the terms of the old lease, then it’s a Modification. If a document is titled a Modification but all it does is ratify the old lease, then it’s a Ratification. Hope that helps!