30 U.S.C. § 225
Section 225 · Condition of lease, forfeiture for violation
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Ready v. Texaco, Inc. (1966)
Most recently applied in Center for Biological Diversity v. Bureau of Land Management (March 2013)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
All leases of lands containing oil or gas, made or issued under the provisions of this chapter, shall be subject to the condition that the lessee will, in conducting his explorations and mining operations, use all reasonable precautions to prevent waste of oil or gas developed in the land, or the entrance of water through wells drilled by him to the oil sands or oil-bearing strata, to the destruction or injury of the oil deposits. Violations of the provisions of this section shall constitute grounds for the forfeiture of the lease, to be enforced as provided in this chapter.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1946—Act Aug. 8, 1946, omitted condition that no wells should be drilled within two hundred feet of boundaries of leased lands.
Savings Provision
See note set out under section 181 of this title.
Outer Continental Shelf; Terms and Conditions of Leases
Terms and conditions of mineral leases on submerged lands of outer Continental Shelf, see section 1337 of Title 43, Public Lands.
Cross References
Surrender of leases, see section 188a of this title.