How oil and gas leases address helium royalties — and what mineral owners in the Hugoton-Panhandle helium-bearing area should look for in lease language.
Get Your Free Mineral ValuationTL;DR How oil and gas leases address helium royalties — and what mineral owners in the Hugoton-Panhandle helium-bearing area should look for in lease language.
Oil and gas leases vary widely in how they address helium and other non-hydrocarbon products. Common patterns:
Pre-1990s leases — frequently silent on helium. The lease grants royalty on "oil, gas, and casinghead gas" without addressing whether helium is included.
1990s-2010s leases — variable. Some grant "all minerals" or "all hydrocarbons and other substances"; others maintain narrower oil-and-gas-only language.
Modern leases (post-2015) — often address helium, hydrogen, and other noble gases explicitly, with separate royalty rates negotiated for non-hydrocarbon substances.
Modern lease forms in helium-bearing areas commonly include reservation language similar to:
"All oil, gas, casinghead gas, hydrocarbons, helium and other noble gases, hydrogen, and any other commercially recoverable substances dissolved in or derived from produced water, formation brine, or any subsurface fluid; at all depths and from all formations; with separate royalty rates for non-hydrocarbon substances to be negotiated."
This is sample illustrative language only — actual lease language must be tailored to the specific transaction.
Hugoton-system counties with characteristic high helium content:
Hansford, Moore, Hutchinson, Carson — Texas Panhandle
Texas County, Beaver County, Cimarron County — Oklahoma Panhandle
Stevens, Grant, Haskell, Seward — southwest Kansas