This new and somewhat shorter edition of the popular textbook on the law of oil and gas focuses first on the "upstream" portion of the oil and gas industry. Chapter 1 examines the common law of oil and gas ownership and the remedies that protect and restrict ownership rights. Chapter 2 focuses on the foundational business relationship used to develop oil and gas in the United States—the oil and gas "lease." Chapter 3 examines common problems encountered in oil and gas conveyancing. Chapter 4 explores legislative and regulatory responses to problems created by common-law ownership concepts, focusing on oil and gas conservation law. Chapter 5 examines the body of law designed to regulate environmental impacts by following the oil and gas development process chronologically, from land acquisition to abandonment. Chapter 6 considers transactions other than leasing and conveying that are frequently encountered in the industry, including assignments, farmout agreements, operating agreements, drilling contracts, and gas sales contracts. Finally, Chapter 7 examines the complex body of law that must be considered when oil and gas development is taking place on property owned by the federal, state, or tribal governments. Many instructors will build the basic oil and gas law course around Chapters 1 through 4 and save Chapters 5 through 7 for advanced courses.

The principal function of this forms manual is to illustrate the exceptional importance of specific language to all contract-based transactions. Unintended ambiguities or carelessness in wording may result in the loss of properties worth millions of dollars. Additionally, differences in state law, regional custom, the identity and interests of the client, and the peculiarities of the specific transaction require a lawyer to choose carefully which form to use as the basis of the transaction. For this reason, there are often included several forms for the same transaction.