Gas Leasing - Measuring your lot to middle of street

- by WENA Member Cheryl Fortner

Before you sign your gas lease, check the acreage listed on the lease.


If you don't have a surveyed copy of your lot's dimensions, you can get it at the Deeds and Records Office in the basement of the old Tarrant County courthouse downtown for $3.50. You'll need to take a description of your property, such as Block 16, Lot 8.


Once you have the dimensions, ad to the length of the lot half the distance across the street. The street measurements should be on the surveyed copy. Most residential streets are 50 feet wide. Now multiply your new length by the width of your property. This will give you the number of square feet in your lot.


To convert this to acreage, divide the total number of square feet in your lot by 43, 560 (the number of square feet in an acre). The answer will be your acreage.


An example: The company had listed us as having 0.1807 acres. Our lot is 105 by 100. We live on a corner. Our street is 50 feet wide. So now the formula for calculating our acreage is: 145 by 125 = 18,125 divided by 43,560 = 0.416 acres. (Our lot alone was not 0.1807 acres, as it had been listed; it was 0.241 acres.)


This makes a difference not only in the bonus check for signing a lease but also in the royalty checks down the road