State law reference
Do Mineral Rights Expire in Louisiana?
Do mineral rights expire in Louisiana? Louisiana mineral servitudes and mineral royalties each end by prescription after 10 years of nonuse, automatically, unless something the Mineral Code counts interrupts it, such as good faith operations, production or a written acknowledgment by the landowner. A mineral lease is different: it ends by its own terms. No notice the mineral owner records alone interrupts prescription.
Official text cited Researched and checked by American Mineral Registry against the official text; review completed October 1, 2026. Reference research, not legal advice.
- Rule type
- Prescription of nonuse
- Period
- 10 years
- Ends without a surface owner step
- Yes
- Preservation filing
- Available
- Forced pooling statute
- Statute found
Official text cited - Surface damages statute
- No statute found
- Deceased or unlocated owner
- Partly checked
How the rule works
Prescription of nonuse, 10 years, for mineral servitudes and mineral royalties. Under the Louisiana Mineral Code a mineral servitude is extinguished by prescription of nonuse for ten years, counted from its creation and starting anew after each interruption; a mineral royalty is extinguished by its own ten year prescription of nonuse (31:85, 31:86). A servitude is interrupted by good faith drilling or mining operations, actual production, qualifying unit operations or unit production, a tested shut in well, or a written acknowledgment by the owner of the burdened land; a royalty is interrupted by actual production, unit production, a tested shut in well, or an acknowledgment, and the royalty articles list no interruption by operations that do not produce. A mineral lease is not subject to prescription of nonuse: it ends at the end of its agreed term or on an express resolutory condition, and it cannot be continued more than ten years without operations or production.
What has to happen
Nothing is required for extinction: the servitude or royalty is extinguished when ten years of nonuse accrue (31:27(1), 31:85(1)), and no notice, filing or court action is needed. Afterwards the former owner must, within thirty days after written demand by the person in whose favor the right was extinguished, furnish a recordable act evidencing the extinction (31:206(A)). If he does not, he is liable for the resulting damages and a reasonable attorney fee (31:207), unless there is a good faith dispute whether prescription accrued (31:208). A former lessee of a lease extinguished before the end of its primary term must record an act evidencing the extinction within ninety days (31:206(B)).
What counts as use or preserves the interest
Servitude: good faith operations for the discovery and production of minerals, commenced with reasonable expectation of discovering and producing in paying quantities at a particular point or depth, continued at the site to that depth, and conducted as a single operation (31:29); the interruption occurs when actual drilling or mining starts on the burdened land, and preparations such as geophysical work, surveying or site clearing do not count (31:30)
Servitude: actual drilling or mining commenced before the prescriptive date interrupts even if completed after it (31:31); a later good faith attempt to complete the well or mine or place it in production (31:32); good faith operations to restore production or secure new production from the same well or mine (31:39)
Servitude: actual production of any mineral covered by the act creating the servitude, in good faith with intent to save or use it for a beneficial purpose; paying quantities are not required (31:36, 31:38)
Servitude: a shut in well on the tract or on a unit including it, proved by testing through surface production to be capable of producing in paying quantities (31:34), and unitization with such a well (31:35)
Servitude: operations or production on a conventional or compulsory unit that includes all or part of the tract; if the unit well is off the tract, the interruption reaches only the part of the tract inside the unit (31:33, 31:37); compulsory unit operations interrupt without formal adoption (31:47)
Servitude: operations or production by a third party adopted by the servitude owner by an instrument filed for registry within three years of learning of them and before the right would prescribe (31:44 to 31:46)
Servitude: a written acknowledgment by the owner of the burdened land that expresses the intent to interrupt prescription and identifies the party and the servitude; it must be filed for registry to affect third parties (31:54, 31:55)
Servitude: a written contractual extension by the landowner that meets the acknowledgment requirements and states the period (31:56, 31:57)
Servitude: prescription does not run while an obstacle the owner can neither prevent nor remove prevents use (31:59, 31:60); a compulsory unitization order is not an obstacle, but a filed lignite or coal mining plan meeting 31:61(B) is
Royalty: actual production of any mineral covered by the act creating the royalty, produced and saved; paying quantities are not required (31:87, 31:88)
Royalty: production from a conventional or compulsory unit including the tract, partial if the unit well is off the tract (31:89); a tested shut in well on the tract or unit (31:90) and unitization with one (31:91)
Royalty: acknowledgment or contractual extension under the servitude rules (31:93), including an acknowledgment by a later servitude owner, effective only for that owner's proportion, after which the royalty depends on the servitude (31:94 to 31:96)
Royalty: an obstacle to actual production that would suspend servitude prescription suspends royalty prescription until removed (31:98)
Land acquired by an acquiring authority with the mineral right reserved in a recorded instrument or judgment: prescription is interrupted while title stays with an acquiring authority (31:149(B))
Preservation filing
None for the mineral owner acting alone. The Mineral Code articles read provide no statement of claim or notice of intent to preserve that the servitude or royalty owner can record. Recorded instruments matter in three ways only: a written acknowledgment by the owner of the burdened land, which must express the intent to interrupt and identify the party and the right, and must be filed for registry to affect third parties (31:54, 31:55; royalties 31:93); a written contractual extension by the landowner meeting the same requirements and stating the period (31:56); and the servitude owner's adoption instrument filed in the conveyance records, which makes actual operations or production by a third party count as use (31:46). Under the articles read, recording alone, without the landowner's act or actual operations, does not interrupt prescription.
Scope
- Interests covered
- Mineral servitudes (31:21) and mineral royalties (31:80), each under its own prescription articles; the Code states that mineral rights are real rights subject either to prescription of nonuse for ten years or to special rules governing their term (31:16). An executive right that accompanies a mineral right is extinguished with it (31:113). Mineral leases (31:114) are not subject to prescription of nonuse (31:115(A)); a lease terminates at the expiration of the agreed term or on an express resolutory condition (31:133) and cannot be continued more than ten years without drilling or mining operations or production, subject to the solid mineral and lignite or coal exceptions in 31:115(B) and (C).
- Minerals covered
- All minerals covered by the act creating the servitude or royalty. Production of any covered mineral interrupts (31:36, 31:87), and an interruption applies to all minerals covered by the act and, for a servitude, to all modes of use (31:40, 31:92). Special rules cover lignite and coal mining plans (31:61(B)).
- Exceptions
Land acquired by an acquiring authority (the United States, the state, their subdivisions and agencies, entities with expropriation power, and certified conservation nonprofits) with the mineral right reserved in a recorded instrument or judgment: prescription is interrupted while title stays with an acquiring authority (31:149(A) and (B)); it runs again as to land divested to others (31:149(C)); exclusions include tax and debt enforcement transfers and transfers without an express reservation (31:149(G))
Atchafalaya Basin Floodway acquisitions with a reserved mineral right: prescription of nonuse does not run, even after transfer to a third person (31:149(H))
Certified economic development acquisitions with a reserved mineral right: prescription of nonuse is 20 years from the date of acquisition (31:149(I))
A mineral right that already burdened the land when an acquiring authority acquired it stays subject to prescription; on its extinction the transferor may vest with an identical right if the acquisition instrument reserved it and an acquiring authority still owns the land (31:149(D))
Prescription is not suspended by minority or other legal disability of the owner (31:58 for servitudes, 31:97 for royalties)
A royalty burdening a servitude is not extinguished when the servitude ends by inheritance or by an act of the servitude owner unless the royalty owner joins or consents expressly in writing (31:85(5))
An act creating servitudes on noncontiguous tracts creates as many servitudes as tracts unless it provides for more, so each prescribes separately; a continuous body of land carries a single servitude (31:63, 31:64)
Mineral leases are outside prescription of nonuse (31:115(A))
- Enactment and amendments
- Louisiana Mineral Code, Acts 1974, No. 50, effective January 1, 1975. It applies to all mineral rights, including those existing on that date, but no provision may be applied to divest already vested rights or impair the obligation of contracts (31:214). Among the servitude and royalty prescription articles read, only 31:39 (Acts 2023, No. 88), 31:61 (Acts 1982, No. 780) and 31:90 (Acts 1975, No. 589) show amendments. Related articles: 31:115 last amended by Acts 2025, No. 458, effective October 1, 2025; 31:149 last amended by Acts 2023, No. 150, effective January 10, 2024; 31:206 last amended by Acts 2023, No. 88. Text read from Internet Archive snapshots of the official pages dated July 2025 to August 2026; 31:54 was also the official page, captured October 1, 2026.
Dates and what they mean
A last use date plus the statutory period gives only an illustrative anniversary: the first day the nonuse condition could be met if nothing that counts as use happened since. It is not a loss date. Try the dormant mineral rule finder.
Adding ten years to one last use date gives an illustrative date only. The restart point depends on the kind of use (last day of actual operations, cessation of production, shut in after testing, effective date of a unit order or act); unit activity from a well off the tract preserves only the part of the tract inside the unit; an obstacle suspends the running of the period; and a landowner acknowledgment or extension, which may sit only in the conveyance records, changes the date. Servitudes and royalties have different interrupting events, rights reserved in government acquisitions follow 31:149, leases follow their own terms, and an act covering noncontiguous tracts creates separate servitudes that prescribe separately (31:64). Where none of these applies, extinction is automatic when the ten years end, but whether operations were in good faith is a question of fact.
Deceased or unlocated owner
Partly checked What the law of Louisiana says when the owner of record has died, is unknown, or cannot be found. It sets out the questions; it does not decide who owns an interest, whether a notice was valid, or whether an interest ended.
Why only partly checked. Whether a death or unknown heirs suspend prescription is open; no Louisiana decision was reviewed.
In Louisiana a mineral servitude or mineral royalty is extinguished by ten years of nonuse, and the Mineral Code says that prescription is not suspended by the minority or other legal disability of the owner. The Mineral Code articles read do not mention a deceased, unknown or unlocated owner and impose no search or notice before extinction; prescription runs by law. A general Civil Code curatorship exists for absent persons whose whereabouts cannot be found by diligent effort, and a succession representative may be authorized to grant mineral leases on succession property.
- Owner of record has died
- Not addressed in the Mineral Code articles read. A succession representative may be authorized by the court to grant mineral leases on succession property (Code Civ. Proc. art. 3226). Whether a death affects the running of prescription is not stated in the articles read.
- Current owner unknown
- Not addressed in the provisions read.
- Owner known but cannot be found
- The Civil Code defines an absent person as one with no representative in the state whose whereabouts cannot be ascertained by diligent effort, and allows a court appointed curator of the property (Civ. Code arts. 47, 48). In the narrow 31:149 retransfer procedure a grantor whose last known address cannot be determined is treated as an absentee defendant. The prescription articles read do not mention absent owners.
How the nonuse rule treats these owners Statute
Ten year prescription of nonuse extinguishes servitudes and royalties, and it is not suspended by the owner's minority or other legal disability. The articles read do not mention death or absence.
Statute
A mineral servitude is extinguished by prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years. La. R.S. 31:27(1)
“A mineral servitude is extinguished by: (1) prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years;”
Scope: Mineral servitudes. Commencement and interruption rules are in 31:28 to 31:57 (read in the October review).
The prescription of nonuse is not suspended by the minority or other legal disability of the owner of a mineral servitude. La. R.S. 31:58
“The prescription of nonuse is not suspended by the minority or other legal disability of the owner of a mineral servitude.”
Scope: Mineral servitudes. The article speaks of minority and legal disability; it does not mention death, absence or unknown owners, and suspension by obstacle under 31:59 is a separate rule.
A mineral royalty is extinguished by prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years. La. R.S. 31:85(1)
“A mineral royalty is extinguished by: (1) prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years;”
Scope: Mineral royalties.
The prescription of nonuse is not suspended by the minority or other legal disability of the owner of a mineral royalty. La. R.S. 31:97
“The prescription of nonuse is not suspended by the minority or other legal disability of the owner of a mineral royalty.”
Scope: Mineral royalties; same limits as P2.
Heirs, devisees and successors Statute
The Mineral Code articles read do not address heirs. Succession procedure allows a court authorized mineral lease of succession property.
Statute
The court may authorize a succession representative to grant mineral leases on succession property, with a minimum royalty set in the order. La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 3226
“The court may also authorize the granting of mineral leases on succession property after compliance with Article 3229.”
Scope: Successions under administration; general succession procedure, not a rule on prescription. Article 3229 notice requirements were not read.
Search required to find the owner Not addressed in the provisions read
No search duty precedes extinction by prescription in the articles read. The Civil Code absent person definition turns on diligent effort to find the person, but that is for curatorship, not prescription.
Who gets notice, and how Statute
No notice is a condition of extinction in the articles read. After extinction, the former owner must furnish a recordable act within thirty days after written demand; how that demand reaches a deceased or unlocated former owner is not stated.
Statute
After a mineral right is extinguished, the former owner must furnish a recordable act evidencing extinction within thirty days after written demand by the person in whose favor it was extinguished. La. R.S. 31:206(A)
“when a mineral right is extinguished by the accrual of prescription of nonuse, expiration of its term, or otherwise, the former owner shall, within thirty days after written demand by the person in whose favor the right has been extinguished or terminated, furnish the person with a recordable act”
Scope: A demand step after extinction, not a notice that conditions extinction. The article does not say how a demand is made on a deceased or unlocated former owner.
Notice by publication Not addressed in the provisions read
The Mineral Code prescription and extinction articles read contain no publication provision.
How the owner responds or preserves Statute
Prescription of a servitude is interrupted by operations, production or a written acknowledgment by the landowner recorded to bind third parties; there is no filing by the mineral owner to preserve a servitude in the articles read.
Statute
Prescription of nonuse of a servitude may be interrupted by a written acknowledgment by the owner of the burdened land, which must be recorded to affect third parties. La. R.S. 31:54
“The prescription of nonuse may be interrupted by a gratuitous or onerous acknowledgment by the owner of the land burdened by a mineral servitude. An acknowledgment must be in writing, and, to affect third parties, must be filed for registry.”
Scope: Mineral servitudes. Interruption by operations or production (31:29 to 31:41) does not depend on who the servitude owner is.
Court, receivership or trust for missing owners Statute
No mineral specific procedure for unknown or unlocated owners was found. General Civil Code curatorship of an absent person's property applies to property generally; 31:149(E)(4) treats an unlocatable grantor as an absentee defendant in one narrow retransfer procedure.
Statute
An absent person has no representative in Louisiana and cannot be found by diligent effort; the court may appoint a curator to manage the absent person's Louisiana property on petition and a showing of necessity. La. Civ. Code art. 47
“An absent person is one who has no representative in this state and whose whereabouts are not known and cannot be ascertained by diligent effort.”
Scope: General Civil Code rule for all property, not mineral specific. Mineral rights are incorporeal immovables (Civ. Code art. 470), but no article read applies curatorship to minerals specifically.
The curator has power of administration and disposition over the absent person's property as provided by legislation. La. Civ. Code art. 48
“The curator has power of administration and disposition over the property of the absent person as provided by legislation.”
Scope: General; the legislation that defines the curator's powers, including any power to grant a mineral lease, was not read.
Where an acquiring authority must offer land back to an original grantor who kept reserved minerals, a grantor whose last known address cannot be determined is treated as an absentee defendant. La. R.S. 31:149(E)(4)
“A grantor whose last known address cannot be determined shall be treated as an absentee defendant.”
Scope: Narrow: retransfer of expropriated land subject to a mineral reservation. Snapshot dated July 20, 2025; whether a 2026 amendment to 31:149 was enacted was not confirmed.
What a title review must establish
- Has ten years of nonuse run on the servitude or royalty without interruption by operations, production or a recorded acknowledgment, regardless of the owner's death, minority or absence?
- Is the former owner's estate under administration, and did a succession representative obtain court authority for any mineral lease?
- Has a curator been appointed for an absent owner's Louisiana property, and does the order cover mineral rights?
- If a recordable act of extinction is needed, who is the former owner or successor to receive the written demand?
Dates. Servitude and royalty: prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years (31:27(1), 31:85(1)), not suspended by minority or other legal disability (31:58, 31:97). Recordable act of extinction: within thirty days after written demand (31:206(A)). 31:149(E)(3): the grantor has thirty calendar days from the date of receipt to accept or reject an offer. Nothing computed. The rule finder does not calculate this period.
What AMR searched. Read through Internet Archive snapshots of official legis.la.gov URLs (the host did not resolve): La. R.S. 31:27, 31:54, 31:58, 31:85, 31:97, 31:149, 31:206; Civ. Code arts. 47 and 48; Code Civ. Proc. art. 3226. The Mineral Code table of contents (Justia mirror, used only to locate articles) was scanned for prescription, suspension, minority, absence, curator, heirs and co-ownership; the October review read 31:16 to 31:98 in full. Not read: Mineral Code co-ownership articles 31:164 to 31:177, Civ. Code arts. 49 to 59 on absent persons, Code Civ. Proc. arts. 3229 and 5091 to 5098 (attorney for absentee), La. R.S. 30:10 pooling escrow details, Louisiana unclaimed property law, and all case law (the CourtListener search quota was exhausted). A point marked not addressed means only that the provisions read do not address it; probate, quiet title and other general procedures may still apply and were not reviewed.
Not settled by this review.
Whether Louisiana courts treat death of the servitude or royalty owner, or an unknown heir, as an obstacle that suspends prescription under 31:59 or 31:98; no case law was reviewed.
Whether co-owner leasing articles 31:164 to 31:177 contain a rule for co-owners who cannot be located.
Whether Louisiana's unclaimed property law or Conservation pooling rules provide an escrow for unlocated owners' proceeds.
Whether 2026 Regular Session SB 492 amended 31:149.
Checked October 6, 2026. Also in the dormant mineral rule finder.
Forced pooling
Official text cited Yes. When separately owned tracts lie within a drilling unit established under R.S. 30:9(B) and the owners have not agreed to pool, the commissioner (the state conservation regulator, as named in the text read) shall require them to pool and develop their lands as a drilling unit if necessary to prevent waste or avoid drilling unnecessary wells, by order after notice and hearing on just and reasonable terms; production allocated to each tract is treated as produced from it (R.S. 30:10(A)(1)). The section also sets cost recovery and risk charge rules for owners who do not participate.
Surface damages
No statute found No Louisiana statute was found that requires oil and gas operators to compensate surface owners for surface damage. R.S. 30:28(I) requires the regulator to adopt rules for a single pre-entry notice to the surface owner at least thirty days before construction of a drilling location, with exceptions such as a surface owner who has a contract with the operator, but it creates no compensation duty. The Mineral Code requires reasonable regard between landowner and mineral owner (31:11) and has a servitude owner use only the land reasonably necessary and restore the surface insofar as practicable (31:22). These are notice and conduct rules, not a surface damages act.
Searched: Read R.S. 30:28 in full (drilling permits, including the Subsection I pre-entry notice and Subsection J surface owner identification), Mineral Code 31:11 and 31:22, and the Mineral Code prescription, lease and extinction articles listed in the sources. Web searches for a Louisiana surface damages or surface owner compensation statute found none. Not read: R.S. 30:29 (remediation of oilfield sites and environmental damage claims), the lessee obligations in 31:122, and Office of Conservation rules implementing the pre-entry notice. legis.la.gov full text search was unavailable because the host was not available when AMR checked.
Taxes
Broad personal income tax: yes. Nonresidents owe Louisiana tax on income earned within or derived from Louisiana sources, which the 2025 IT-540B instructions say includes rents and royalties, and residents are taxed on income from whatever sources derived. Official text cited Source and notes.
Severance or production tax. Oil 12.5 percent of value from wells completed before July 2025 and 6.5 percent from newer wells; gas $0.1514 per Mcf for July 2026 to June 2027. Core rule cited Full record: rates, exemptions, royalty owner share and sources.
Not tax advice. Rates change and the cited source controls.
Sources for the dormant mineral rule
Each source was read on the date shown. Where an official site was not available, the official page was read through a dated Internet Archive copy and that is stated.
- La. R.S. 31:16
“Mineral rights are real rights and are subject either to the prescription of nonuse for ten years or to special rules of law governing the term of their existence.”
- La. R.S. 31:21
“A mineral servitude is the right of enjoyment of land belonging to another for the purpose of exploring for and producing minerals and reducing them to possession and ownership.”
- La. R.S. 31:80
“A mineral royalty is the right to participate in production of minerals from land owned by another or land subject to a mineral servitude owned by another.”
- La. R.S. 31:114
“A mineral lease is a contract by which the lessee is granted the right to explore for and produce minerals.”
- La. R.S. 31:27(1)
“A mineral servitude is extinguished by: (1) prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years;”
- La. R.S. 31:28
“Prescription of nonuse of a mineral servitude commences from the date on which it is created.”
- La. R.S. 31:29
“The prescription of nonuse running against a mineral servitude is interrupted by good faith operations for the discovery and production of minerals. By good faith is meant that the operations must be (1) commenced with reasonable expectation of discovering and producing minerals in paying quantities at a particular point or depth,”
- La. R.S. 31:30
“Preparations for the commencement of actual drilling or mining operations, such as geological or geophysical exploration, surveying, clearing of a site, and the hauling and erection of materials and structures necessary to conduct operations do not interrupt prescription. Prescription commences anew from the last day on which actual drilling or mining operations are conducted.”
- La. R.S. 31:36
“Prescription of nonuse is interrupted by the production of any mineral covered by the act creating the servitude. The interruption occurs on the date on which actual production begins and prescription commences anew from the date of cessation of actual production.”
- La. R.S. 31:38
“To interrupt prescription it is not necessary that minerals be produced in paying quantities. It is necessary only that minerals actually be produced in good faith with the intent of saving or otherwise using them for some beneficial purpose.”
- La. R.S. 31:33
“will, if otherwise sufficient to interrupt prescription according to Articles 29 through 32, interrupt prescription only as to that portion of the tract burdened by the servitude included in the unit”
- La. R.S. 31:54
“The prescription of nonuse may be interrupted by a gratuitous or onerous acknowledgment by the owner of the land burdened by a mineral servitude. An acknowledgment must be in writing, and, to affect third parties, must be filed for registry.”
- La. R.S. 31:55
“An acknowledgment must express the intent of the landowner to interrupt prescription and clearly identify the party making it and the mineral servitude or servitudes acknowledged.”
- La. R.S. 31:56
“A landowner may extend a mineral servitude beyond the prescriptive date for a period less than that which would result from an interruption by an acknowledgment. The extension must meet all of the requirements for an acknowledgment and must specify the period for which the servitude is extended.”
- La. R.S. 31:46
“Adoption of the operations of another is accomplished when the servitude owner files for registry in the conveyance records of the situs of his servitude an instrument describing the land subject to the servitude, identifying the operations, specifying the date on which the operations commenced, and expressing the intent to adopt them as his own.”
- La. R.S. 31:59
“If the owner of a mineral servitude is prevented from using it by an obstacle that he can neither prevent nor remove, the prescription of nonuse does not run as long as the obstacle remains.”
- La. R.S. 31:85(1)
“A mineral royalty is extinguished by: (1) prescription resulting from nonuse for ten years;”
- La. R.S. 31:87
“Prescription of nonuse running against a mineral royalty is interrupted by the production of any mineral covered by the act creating the royalty. Prescription is interrupted on the date on which actual production begins and commences anew from the date of cessation of actual production.”
- La. R.S. 31:88
“To interrupt prescription it is not necessary that minerals be produced in paying quantities but only that they actually be produced and saved.”
- La. R.S. 31:93
“Subject to the special rules provided in Articles 94 through 96, the rules applicable to acknowledgments and extensions of prescription running against mineral servitudes are applicable to mineral royalties.”
- La. R.S. 31:115(A)
“The interest of a mineral lessee is not subject to the prescription of nonuse, but the lease must have a term. Except as provided in this Article, a lease shall not be continued for a period of more than ten years without drilling or mining operations or production.”
- La. R.S. 31:133
“A mineral lease terminates at the expiration of the agreed term or upon the occurrence of an express resolutory condition.”
- La. R.S. 31:149(B)
“prescription of the mineral right is interrupted as long as title to the land remains with the acquiring authority, or any successor that is also an acquiring authority.”
- La. R.S. 31:149(I)
“and a mineral right subject to the prescription of nonuse is reserved in the instrument by which the land is acquired, the prescription of nonuse shall be for a period of twenty years from the date of acquisition”
- La. R.S. 31:206(A)
“when a mineral right is extinguished by the accrual of prescription of nonuse, expiration of its term, or otherwise, the former owner shall, within thirty days after written demand by the person in whose favor the right has been extinguished or terminated, furnish the person with a recordable act evidencing the extinction or expiration of the right.”
- La. R.S. 31:214
“The provisions of this Code shall apply to all mineral rights, including those existing on the effective date hereof; but no provision may be applied to divest already vested rights or to impair the obligation of contracts.”
Open questions for a specialist
This review did not settle these points. They are where a Louisiana title attorney or landman should look first.
When prescription restarts after an acknowledgment: Article 56 implies an acknowledgment gives a longer period than any extension, but the Code articles read do not state the restart date; the Civil Code applies where the Code is silent (31:2). This point is not yet confirmed.
Calendar computation (day of commencement, legal holidays) is governed by Civil Code rules that were not read.
Articles were read from Internet Archive snapshots dated July 2025 to August 2026 (31:54 also as captured from the official host on October 1, 2026). Amendments after each snapshot date were not checked against session laws.
Search results indicate 2026 Regular Session SB 492 proposed to amend 31:149(I) (economic development acquisitions) and was returned to the Senate calendar on April 21, 2026; whether it was enacted was not confirmed on legis.la.gov.
Leading cases on good faith operations, unit interruption and acknowledgment were not reviewed.
Search results indicate a 2026 resolution asked the Louisiana State Law Institute to study mineral servitude issues raised by SB 492 and report by February 1, 2027; not verified on legis.la.gov.
Common questions
Can mineral rights lapse in Louisiana?
Yes. Louisiana applies prescription of nonuse: a mineral right unused for 10 years is extinguished. What interrupts prescription is set out under How the rule works.
How long before unused mineral rights lapse in Louisiana?
10 years. Ten years of nonuse (31:27(1) for servitudes, 31:85(1) for royalties), commencing on the date the right is created (31:28, 31:86). After operations, prescription commences anew from the last day actual drilling or mining operations are conducted (31:30), or from the last day of good faith operations to secure or restore production in paying quantities (31:41). After production, it commences anew from the date actual production ceases (31:36, 31:87). After a tested shut in well, from the date the well is shut in after testing (31:34, 31:90). After unitization with a tested shut in well, from the effective date of the unit order or act (31:35, 31:91). An acknowledgment by the landowner interrupts (31:54, applied to royalties by 31:93); a contractual extension runs for the period it states, which must be shorter than an acknowledgment would give (31:56). Reserved rights in land acquired for a certified economic development project have a 20 year period from acquisition (31:149(I)).
Does Louisiana allow forced pooling?
Yes. Louisiana has a forced pooling statute, summarized with its citation under Forced pooling above.
Does Louisiana require payment for surface damage?
A search of Louisiana’s official code found no surface damages statute of that kind. Leases, deeds and general law can still give the surface owner a claim.
What changed
The June 2026 edition listed Louisiana as Can lapse / revert, lapse period 10 years. Release 2026.10 replaced that entry with the reviewed rule above, and retired the June risk score and ranking for every state. Release 2026.10.1 added the deceased or unlocated owner section. See all changes.
Cite this page
American Mineral Registry. "Do Mineral Rights Expire in Louisiana?" U.S. Mineral Rights Law Atlas, release 2026.10.1, October 6, 2026. https:// americanmineralregistry.com/ research/ states/ do-mineral-rights-expire-in-louisiana
[Do Mineral Rights Expire in Louisiana?](https:// americanmineralregistry.com/ research/ states/ do-mineral-rights-expire-in-louisiana), U.S. Mineral Rights Law Atlas, American Mineral Registry, release 2026.10.1 (2026-10-06).
<a href="https:// americanmineralregistry.com/ research/ states/ do-mineral-rights-expire-in-louisiana">Do Mineral Rights Expire in Louisiana?</ a>, U.S. Mineral Rights Law Atlas, American Mineral Registry, release 2026.10.1 (2026-10-06).
@misc{amr_atlas_la_2026101,
author = {{American Mineral Registry}},
title = {Do Mineral Rights Expire in Louisiana?},
howpublished = {U.S. Mineral Rights Law Atlas, release 2026.10.1},
date = {2026-10-06},
url = {https://americanmineralregistry.com/research/states/do-mineral-rights-expire-in-louisiana}
} TY - ELEC AU - American Mineral Registry TI - Do Mineral Rights Expire in Louisiana? T2 - U.S. Mineral Rights Law Atlas ET - 2026.10.1 DA - 2026/10/ 06 UR - https:/ / americanmineralregistry.com/ research/ states/ do-mineral-rights-expire-in-louisiana ER -
General information about statutes, not legal advice and not a title opinion. Facts about a specific interest decide the outcome. Published by American Mineral Registry, which also runs a commercial service for owners; see how the two relate.