A Petroleum Land Man is a person who fulfills a variety of services for petroleum exploration companies. According to the American Association of Petroleum Landmen (www.landman.org), these services often include: negotiating for the acquisition or divestiture of mineral rights; negotiating business agreements that provide for the exploration for and/or development of minerals; determining ownership in minerals through the research of public and private records; reviewing the status of title, curing title defects and otherwise reducing title risk associated with ownership in minerals; managing rights and/or obligations derived from ownership of interests in minerals; and unitizing or pooling of interests in minerals.
The majority of Oil Gas Landman are still men, but the term also refers to women in the field. It is customary for a Petroleum Land Man to specialize in a number of aspects of the profession that requires specific knowledge, such as title and lease negotiations and acquisition, onshore/offshore contracts, rights-of-way and surface land management, federal lands, and numerous other areas.
In addition to the petroleum industry, there are some other industries that often require the skills and expertise of the Oil Gas Landman, one of which is the wind industry. Wind development requires the locating of surface sites for turbines, determining surface ownership, negotiating lease agreements, and has many other similarities of duties performed by the Oil Gas Landman. Telecommunications, mining, pipeline, power and transportation are just a few of the other industries that frequently employ the Professional Landman's services.
