Landman Job Responsibilities
Despite the fact that methodologies have changed, the basic job responsibilities of landmen remain very close to what they were 80 to 90 years ago. And thanks to the opportunities that hydraulic fracturing have provided, the number of jobs in the oil and gas industry, including landmen positions, is expected to increase over the next several years by 18 percent according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Landmen are an essential part of an oil and gas operation. Without them, oil and gas companies wouldn’t be able to extract and produce these much-needed resources. Like many positions in the energy industry, a majority of landmen are reaching retirement age, and there are fewer educated and experienced landmen ready to take their place. The combination of increasing opportunities in the field and an aging workforce has created a hire demand for these employees.
Common Responsibilities Include:
- Researches and provides documentation of leases, rights-of-way, joint ventures, and other types of oil and gas agreements.
- Performs in-house title information gathering, organizes and analyzes title documents to assess rights information, and performs internal title updates.
- May be asked to provide administrative support and record keeping to the title section.
- May be asked to provide assistance to the drilling and operations land staff.
- Prepares lease agreements, tracks and records rental receipts, and performs other land management or property management activities.
- When needed, the landman prepares and executes specialized lease documents.
- Some landmen work as part of the geological development team for a specific location.
- Landmen may oversee and make work assignments for contract personnel for lease acquisitions.
- Landmen must be knowledgeable of all types of land transactions like farm-ins and farm-outs, and others.
- Landmen prepare and present reports to upper managers on the status of rights acquisition.
- When there are omissions or errors on a lease or title, they take the appropriate steps to cure them.
In Canada, people who perform a landman’s job retain the landman title. However, in other countries throughout the world, people who perform the same duties for the petroleum industry are called petroleum negotiators.