A Mother Hubbard clause — also called a cover-all or catch-all clause — is oil-and-gas lease language that automatically includes small, unleased strips or adjacent parcels the formal legal description accidentally omits, so the operator's lease covers all of the lessor's contiguous land in the immediate area.
The formal legal description in a lease can miss things: a narrow strip along a road or river, a sliver left over from an old survey, a small adjoining parcel the lessor owns but that was never separately described. A Mother Hubbard clause sweeps those overlooked bits into the lease automatically, so the lease "covers" everything the lessor owns adjacent to or within the described tract, not just the acreage the description names.
The clause originated to cure survey errors and small strips — the classic problem of a thin, unleased ribbon of land defeating a well or a unit. From the operator's side it is insurance against a technicality: it prevents a mis-described strip from becoming an unleased gap that complicates development or clouds a unit.
The flip side is that a broad cover-all clause can pull more of your land into the lease than you intended — potentially adjacent parcels you meant to keep separate — all at the same lease terms and royalty you negotiated for the main tract. Owners commonly narrow it: cap the extra acreage it can capture (for example, small strips only, up to a stated number of acres), or delete adjacent parcels you want to lease separately. Knowing the clause is there is the first step to negotiating it.
It is worth reading alongside its near-opposite, the Pugh clause, which releases undeveloped acreage rather than sweeping more in — together they define how much of your land the lease holds. See oil and gas lease clauses for the full set an owner should recognize. This page is educational information, not legal advice — have an attorney review any lease before signing.
Educational information only — not legal, tax, or investment advice. Consult a qualified attorney, CPA, or landman about your specific situation.
A cover-all or catch-all clause in an oil and gas lease that automatically includes small strips or adjacent parcels the formal legal description misses, so the lease covers all of the lessor's contiguous land in the area.
The name is an informal industry term — evoking the nursery rhyme's cupboard — for a clause meant to sweep in everything, curing survey gaps and small unleased strips the description leaves out.
Many owners narrow it rather than delete it — capping the extra acreage it can capture or excluding adjacent parcels they want to lease separately — since a broad version can pull more land into the lease at the same terms. Have an attorney review it; this is not legal advice.
It expands it, by covering small strips and adjacent land the description omits. That contrasts with a Pugh clause, which limits a lease by releasing undeveloped acreage after the primary term.
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