Somewhere in the 260th Producer's 88 lease form I reviewed that day, one word had been changed from "or" to "and." That word can be worth millions of dollars. Finding it is the job.
I am John Toppa. I work as a petroleum landman out of Melbourne, Florida, and before that I was a lawyer. My legal career was short. What it gave me has outlasted it, and it is shocking how much of this work runs on skills I was taught in law school and used in a courtroom.
Four of them carry over almost intact. Pattern recognition. Weighing evidentiary value. Understanding how rules and contracts actually mechanically operate. And applying sequenced logic, then presenting it so someone else can follow it. That is trial work. It is also mineral title.
The oil and gas industry is a convergence of disciplines. Land, engineering, chemistry, geology, title, economics, legal, marketing, sales, logistics, and the list keeps going. Every component has to fit a pattern inside a set of rules handed down by multiple governing bodies at once. Navigating that interplay is the price of admission. Then market fluctuations and changes in administration sit on top of it as a looming risk factor on anything ambitious you try.
As a lawyer, I was trained to present a well reasoned argument, backed by solid evidence, inside a complex rule structure, to a judge with vast discretion or to a jury made up of six to twelve people who could not come up with a good enough reason to be excused. Lease review and complicated mineral title ask for the same refined skills to tip the scales toward success.
Attention to detail takes years to build and you lose it if you do not use it. Speed and detail do not work hand in hand, and both are required at the highest level. That tension never resolves. You just get better at holding it, one form at a time, looking for the word somebody changed.
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