The Land Department

A lot of land students hear that an in-house seat at a big E&P is the goal. Mergers keep cutting those seats, while the field side of the business is about to lose a generation of landmen who all came in during the same boom.Brent spoke to the University of Oklahoma's Energy Management students about what that opening means for them: what field landmen actually do, what your first 18 months look like, why AI still needs a landman who knows title, and how a field career can lead all the way to running a company.The student Q&A gets into educating landowners, writing up your work, and asking better questions. If you're starting out in land work or hiring the folks who are, give this one a listen.Key Topics & Timestamps01:09 - Introducing Dudley Land03:02 - Brent Sets the Stage05:25 - Company Overview and Markets12:52 - What Field Landmen Do29:41 - Career Paths and Early Pay42:26 - AI Needs Real Expertise43:35 - Title Work Foundations45:24 - Relationships And Reputation50:06 - Career Paths And Growth55:30 - Q&A Practical AdviceMemorable Quotes"You're not a failure if you don't end up working for a big E&P." — Brent"AI's gonna give you a wrong answer with extreme confidence." — Brent"I can put the brakes on someone, I can't put the gas in them." — Brent"Most likely the person that's gonna own Dudley Land Company when I'm gone is working for the company right now, or he might be in this room right now." — BrentKey TakeawaysDon't count the field side out if a big E&P doesn't call. Mergers have cut a lot of in-house seats, and field work keeps growing across oil and gas, pipelines, utilities, renewables, geothermal, and lithium.Learn title before you lean on AI. It'll hand you a wrong answer with real confidence, and you'll only catch it if you know how mineral ownership turns into leasehold and how leases trade hands and how severances split them.Walk into every negotiation ready to teach. The landowner across the table might be a schoolteacher who's never read a lithium lease, and explaining why you're there is how you start building trust.Bring your own answer when you ask a question. Lay out the situation, what you think, and what you've already checked, then ask your mentor. The more you put into yourself, the more they'll put into you.The people who'll run land companies next are starting out right now. Brent expects whoever owns Dudley Land Company after him is already on the team or still in school, and the field is where that road begins.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.ResourcesLearn about the OU Energy Management programKeep learning with the AAPLMeet the industry at NAPENeed Help With A Project? ⁠Meet With Dudley⁠Need Help with Staffing? Connect with ⁠Dudley Staffing⁠Streamline Your Title Process with ⁠Dudley Select Title⁠Watch On ⁠YouTube⁠Follow Dudley Land Co. On ⁠LinkedIn⁠Have Questions? ⁠Email Us⁠More from Our HostsConnect with ⁠Brent⁠ on LinkedInConnect with ⁠Khalil⁠ on LinkedIn

Your data center or solar project can clear engineering, financing, and permitting, and still get stopped by a mineral owner nobody accounted for. The mineral estate doesn't disappear because the site will hold servers or panels instead of a wellbore, and most developers don't find out until it's expensive to fix.Micah Hinton is a land manager at TotalEnergies and president of the Austin Professional Landmen's Association. He joins Brent and Natalie to talk about how mineral rights get evaluated across data center, solar, wind and battery storage projects. They cover what a renewables report should chase, where a title commitment stops being useful, and how a set-aside turns into a drill pad with access to it.If you're siting a data center, developing renewables, or working title, this shows you where mineral risk hides and how to get ahead of it.Key Topics & Timestamps00:49 - Episode Intro04:37 - Meet Micah Hinton07:41 - Renewables Meets Oil And Gas14:51 - Mineral Risk For Renewable Projects21:56 - Title Commitments And Mineral Waivers31:42 - Educating Mineral Owners35:19 - Creativity As A Landman Skill40:11 - Partnering With Oil And Gas Operators49:34 - Wrap Up And Key TakeawaysMemorable Quotes"You cannot take the exceptions on your title commitment as gospel. It's worthless when it comes to the minerals." — Natalie"We need to know who owns the minerals, and if it's leased, who owns that leasehold, 'cause that's who we need to talk to at the end of the day." — Micah"We're doing [a mineral ownership report] within that first year so we know what we're looking at, and is it going to kill it before we have the next payment or not?" — Micah"The more you can listen, the more it allows you to use your creativity and your experience and your knowledge to come to a solution. That's really the value of a landman." — BrentKey TakeawaysRun a mineral ownership report before you commit real capital. Solar and data centers need it 100% of the time; wind and battery storage depend on the layout and the underwriter.Scope the report for what you're building. A renewables report can leave the royalty estate alone; you need the mineral owners and, where leased, the leasehold.Order the report in year one of the option, not the year you need financing, while walking away is still cheap.Tie waiver compensation to something concrete. Micah settled one by paying for a plugging job the operator already owedResourcesAustin Professional Landmen's Association (APLA): https://austinlandmen.orgCleanTX: https://cleantx.orgNeed Help With A Project? Meet With Dudley: https://www.dudley-land.com/meet-with-dudleyNeed Help with Staffing? Dudley Staffing: https://www.dudley-staffing.com/Streamline Your Title Process: https://www.dudley-land.com/dudley-select-titleWatch On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5aLDkpG4B-iviAHrEdESgFollow Dudley Land Co. on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/t-s-dudley-land-company-incHave Questions? Email: [email protected] from Micah HintonTotalEnergies: https://totalenergies.comMicah Hinton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micah-hinton/More from Our Hosts:Brent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-broussard-177b9214/Khalil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalilbenali/Natalie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliejohns-landman

Say “data center” to a Texas landowner right now and you'll hear about the last five years: calls every week, promises that didn't hold, and a worst-case story leading the news. That fatigue is what you're walking into, and it decides deals before the numbers do.Drew Burke runs data center site selection for Hanwha, a South Korean conglomerate, after leaving a career at Shell. He joins Brent and Natalie to talk about what responsible development takes in Texas now: answering the water question straight, why a withdrawn Henderson County project was good news, and how roughly $50,000 a megawatt of at-risk security moved land work onto the critical path.If you're the conduit between a landowner and a company in a hurry, this one's for you.Key Topics & Timestamps01:03 - Episode Intro03:01 - Get to Know Drew Burke04:51 - Shell Career Across Energy09:51 - Hanwha Shift to Solar and Data Centers19:44 - Landowner Trust and Industry Guardrails33:32 - Cost Allocation Guardrails35:07 - Governor Mandate Requirements37:17 - Grid Reliability Slow Ramp41:04 - Texas ISO Differences53:12 - Risk Sharing and Wrap UpMemorable Quotes“Development should be boring.” — Drew“The numbers will make it viable, but at the end of the day, the narrative is what's gonna make it possible.” — Drew“The ground game is what's important, and that relationship with the landowner is where it all begins.” — Brent“I always think it's important to dignify somebody's journey.” — Drew“We probably need 1,000 more Drew Burkes in this industry.” — NatalieKey TakeawaysTrust comes before the numbers. Landowners are handing over ground with decades of story behind it, so ask about the story. People who feel understood will trust you to do right by them, even when the deal falls apart.Answer the water question straight. Say what you know, say what you can't control, and commit to walking away if the water doesn't work. Hedging reads as evasion, and nothing you say after it lands.A withdrawn project is the system working. The developer hit a stage gate in Henderson County, the site didn't clear, and they walked instead of pushing a bad site onto a community.New financial security runs about $50,000 a megawatt, and most of it's at risk. That pushes site control, title, and surface use ahead of the interconnection agreement.Show up when a county floats a moratorium. Some are a community asking for time and some are a stall. Either way, sit at the table with the commissioners and drop the technocrat language.Budget real time for the narrative. Drew spent years on project valuations and still calls the narrative what makes a project possible. Clickbait travels faster than a feasibility study, so plan the community work like you plan the numbers.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.ResourcesNeed Help With A Project? Meet With DudleyNeed Help with Staffing? Connect with Dudley StaffingStreamline Your Title Process with Dudley Select TitleWatch On YouTubeFollow Dudley Land Co. On LinkedInHave Questions? Email UsMore From Our GuestsDrew Burke, Senior Director of Data Center Site Selection at Hanwha Data CentersConnect with Drew on LinkedInMore from Our HostsConnect with Brent on LinkedInConnect with Natalie on LinkedInConnect with Khalil on LinkedInConnect With UsReady to protect your land projects with integrated legal and title support? Our Dudley Select Title division works seamlessly with experienced oil and gas counsel to keep your deals on track and defensible. Contact us to learn how our complete energy partnership approach includes the legal expertise that matters when stakes are high.

Your crews are at capacity, you're turning down work, and the bench behind them is thin. You already know the answer involves bringing new people in, and you also know that handing a trainee a courthouse assignment isn't training.Brent, Steve, and Brandon walk through what Dudley built this year: roughly 100 checkpoints a landman needs exposure to, about 20 paid mentors, and more than a dozen energy management graduates working a six-month program. They get into why day rates finally started moving, what client backing looks like inside an MSA, and why nobody in land can define responsible AI yet.If you're growing a team without giving up the quality your clients hired you for, start here.Key Topics & Timestamps00:59 - Episode Intro01:29 - Summer Recap04:29 - Company Midyear Update07:52 - Mentor Program Pipeline18:33 - Day Rates and Costs23:27 - AI Disruption and Policy32:58 - AI Policy Uncertainty34:05 - Quality Control With AI36:57 - Using Versus Building AI40:42 - Annual Planning Playbook50:02 - College FootballMemorable Quotes"I've never been in a spot where I've turned down so much work, to be honest." — Steve"Training someone isn't just hiring them and throwing them out there. It's being responsible." — Brent"If you don't have young people coming into the industry, what's gonna happen in 10, 15 years?" — Brandon"There's a difference between using AI and building with AI." — KhalilKey TakeawaysBuild the training protocol before you recruit. Dudley mapped roughly 100 checkpoints a landman needs exposure to and lined up paid mentors first, then brought trainees in. Recruiting first and sorting out development later is what gave trainees a bad name.Pay your mentors. Mentoring pulls real time and attention away from billable work. Compensating mentors is what keeps a program alive past its first enthusiastic month.Sell the trainee program as a partnership. Clients fund six months of lower production and come out with ten to twenty landmen dedicated to their projects. Framed that way, Steve hasn't had a client say no.Day rates move when you explain the business, not the ask. Insurance, benefits, compliance, and now AI tooling all cost money. Walking clients through that math gets further than twenty years of asking for more.Free AI tools are a confidentiality problem. Contractors pasting client data into consumer chatbots are breaking the same agreements they signed. Approved-tool lists and contract language are the fix, and both belong in your MSA conversations now.Give every goal an owner. Annual planning holds up when each objective carries a named owner and a monthly progress update that goes out to the whole company, misses included.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.ResourcesKudu SuiteAmerican Association of Professional LandmenNeed Help With A Project? Meet With DudleyNeed Help with Staffing? Connect with Dudley StaffingStreamline Your Title Process with Dudley Select TitleWatch On YouTubeFollow Dudley Land Co. On LinkedInHave Questions? Email usMore from Our HostsConnect with ⁠Brent⁠ on LinkedInConnect with ⁠Khalil⁠ on LinkedInConnect with Brandon on LinkedInConnect with Steve on LinkedInConnect With UsReady to protect your land projects with integrated legal and title support? Our Dudley Select Title division works seamlessly with experienced oil and gas counsel to keep your deals on track and defensible. Contact us to learn how our complete energy partnership approach includes the legal expertise that matters when stakes are high.

The energy business you trained for keeps changing under your feet. Oil and gas, renewables, and now data centers used to be separate worlds. Today they're colliding into one grid, and the land professional sits right in the middle of it.Jigar Shah, former head of the DOE Loan Programs Office, joins Brent and Natalie for a state-of-the-union on where energy actually stands in 2026. Solar and batteries are carrying the load, data centers are learning to play nice, and right-of-way fights are getting solved in ways nobody expected.If you're working land where power, water, and infrastructure all compete for the same acres, this conversation is your map for the next five years.Key Topics & Timestamps01:23 - Episode Intro03:10 - Meet Jigar Shah05:25 - State of the Grid08:06 - Texas Battery Boom16:16 - Landmen and Community33:16 - Contrarians And Progress34:09 - Right Of Way Resistance35:14 - Solar Batteries As Incentives40:06 - Microgrids And Shared Grid47:24 - Rapid Fire And Wrap UpMemorable Quotes"Everything starts with land." — Jigar"You can't just come in there and throw money at a situation. That'll only take you so far." — Brent"Landmen have built empires for oil and gas for a hundred and fifty years." — Natalie"We just need to depoliticize energy. It's all energy, it's all money, it's all cold beer, and a working coffee maker." — JigarKey TakeawaysSolar and battery storage win right now because they're the only power supply chain that isn't backordered. If you need capacity on the grid fast, that's what you can actually deploy this year.Homeowners are backing into solar and batteries through their budgets, not climate politics. A near-free battery beats a $6,000 generator, and the panels follow once the inverter is already there.Oil and gas, renewables, and data centers are merging into one energy industry. The landmen who can work across all three sectors are the ones getting hired.Community engagement is a core land skill, not a checkbox. Show up, tell the truth, and treat people with dignity before you talk money, or the project stalls.Solar and batteries are becoming the new right-of-way incentive. A $29,000 unit that zeroes a landowner's bill for 35 years beats a cash offer and sidesteps condemnation.The grid is a shared resource, and the companies that tried to go it alone lost. Plan for interconnection and shared capacity instead of off-grid independence.About Our GuestJigar Shah is an energy entrepreneur, investor, and strategist who served as director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office from 2021 to 2025. He founded SunEdison, led the Carbon War Room, and now co-hosts the Energy Empire and Open Circuit podcasts on the energy transition.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.ResourcesNeed Help With A Project? Meet With DudleyNeed Help with Staffing? Connect with Dudley StaffingStreamline Your Title Process with Dudley Select TitleWatch On YouTubeFollow Dudley Land Co. On LinkedInHave Questions? Email usMore from Our GuestsJigar Shah, Energy Entrepreneur, Investor, and StrategistConnect with Jigar on LinkedInListen to the Energy Empire podcastListen to the Open Circuit podcastMore from Our HostsConnect with Brent on LinkedInConnect with Khalil on LinkedIn

Every royalty check starts with work most people never see. After a lease is signed and a well starts producing, someone has to review title, build the deck, and make sure every owner's decimal interest adds up to a perfect 1.0 before anyone gets paid. That someone is a division order analyst, one of the most important and least understood roles in the land business.Rebekah Stringer, President of the Houston Association of Division Order Analysts and a division order supervisor with twelve years in the field, joins Brent and Khalil for a ground-up tour of the land back office. She walks through the full lifecycle from title review to payment, explains suspense and escheat, and gets into the people side of the job: owner relations, what stays in-house versus what gets outsourced, and how the next generation finds its way into a profession most people stumble into by accident.Key Topics & Timestamps00:46 - Back Office Matters02:33 - Rebekah's Career Path06:46 - Inside Division Order Work12:15 - Division Orders and Suspense24:11 - Escheat and Finding Owners31:00 - Licensing Tiers and Costs32:02 - PI Tools and Ethics33:57 - Outsourcing Division Order Work41:45 - Clean Handoffs and Spreadsheet Reality52:27 - Talent PipelineMemorable Quotes"Make it add up to 1.0." — Rebekah"Handling owners is a huge part of what we do." — Rebekah"It's not just getting people paid, it's making sure you've got everything papered up and documented properly." — Brent"Nobody really knows what a division order analyst is, or even that we exist." — RebekahKey TakeawaysThe back office is where royalty owners actually get paid. After a lease is signed and a well comes online, the division order team reviews title, builds the deck, confirms every interest adds up to 1.0, and sends out division orders so owners can go into pay.A clean handoff that adds up to 1.0 makes everything easier. When an in-house landman hands over a division of interest that totals exactly 1.0, the division order team can set up the well and get owners paid without untangling a title problem first.Owners carry the responsibility to keep their records current. Operators can't pay or update an owner they don't know about, so address changes, sales, and deaths all sit with the owner to report. That's why suspense exists and why empathetic owner relations matter so much.Some work has to stay in-house. Well setups, deck setups, and complex transfers carry too much downstream risk to outsource. Owner relations, pay code changes, and escheat support are safer to hand off when a team needs to flex up.The profession faces a talent gap, and associations are the way in. Most analysts found the field by accident, and experienced analysts are retiring with their knowledge. Groups like NADOA and HADOA offer the trainings, mentorship, and networking that bring new people in.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.⁠Resources⁠⁠⁠PBLA ⁠⁠⁠(Permian Basin Landmen's Association)⁠⁠⁠Texas Tech University Energy Commerce Program⁠⁠⁠Need Help With A Project? ⁠⁠⁠Meet With Dudley⁠⁠⁠Need Help with Staffing? Connect with ⁠⁠⁠Dudley Staffing⁠⁠⁠Streamline Your Title Process with ⁠⁠⁠Dudley Select Title⁠⁠⁠Watch On ⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠Follow Dudley Land Co. On ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠Have Questions? ⁠⁠⁠Email us⁠⁠⁠More From Our GuestRebekah Stringer, President of the ⁠Houston Association of Division Order Analysts ⁠and board member of the ⁠National Association of Division Order Analysts⁠Connect with Rebekah on⁠ LinkedIn⁠More from Our Hosts⁠⁠⁠Brent⁠⁠⁠ on LinkedIn⁠⁠Khalil ⁠⁠⁠on LinkedIn

AI gets all the headlines, but the data centers behind it don't run without fuel. Natural gas is a huge part of that story, and so is the land underneath it. Peter Snell, founder and CEO of PetroVybe, joins Brent and Khalil to explain how he's building a natural gas company designed for the AI era from the ground up.They dig into why so much Permian gas stays trapped, why PetroVybe operates where the infrastructure already exists, and how a 10-year asset strategy gets built one acquisition at a time. Peter also breaks down how landmen can use AI as a daily planning tool, what data center developers keep getting wrong about mineral rights and right of way, and why planning for failure is part of the model. It's a practical look at where energy, technology, and land work all meet.Key Timestamps01:06 - Why Data Centers Matter04:12 - PetroVybe Origin Story08:02 - Permian Gas Bottlenecks15:40 - Building a 10-Year Asset Base20:14 - AI Limits and Landman Playbook32:32 - Data Centers Land Pitfalls40:42 - Ten-Year Pivots And Stewardship47:01 - AI Future Trades Wrap UpMemorable Quotes"AI centers don't exist without fuel, and I think that's often missed in the public eye." — Peter"AI's not here to take your job. AI's here to make your job easier so we can do more with you and not hire five more landmen." — Peter"A landman is not going anywhere." — Brent"Get comfortable with being uncomfortable with learning about those new things." — PeterKey TakeawaysAI data centers run on natural gas. The public conversation focuses on AI capabilities, but the compute can't run without fuel. Natural gas is core to powering the buildout, and that puts land and mineral work at the center of the story.The Permian has gas, but it's trapped. The infrastructure is built for oil, not gas, so much of the supply can't reach market profitably. PetroVybe operates in South and East Texas where the takeaway capacity actually exists.East Texas land is a people business. Heirship, complicated title, smaller parcels, and hundreds of mineral owners per project make East Texas a different challenge than the contract-driven Permian. That complexity is exactly where landmen add value.Landmen can use AI as a daily planning tool. Feed Claude or ChatGPT your local context, test it against the macro trends, and build a 30-day, 12-month, and 24-month plan. The goal is to understand the connection points, not become an expert in everything.Data center developers keep skipping the land work. Sites get bought without checking mineral exposure, interconnection queue status, or right of way. The deal looks easy until the dirt underneath turns into a problem.About Our GuestPeter Snell is the founder and CEO of PetroVybe, a natural gas development company built for the AI era. After more than a decade as a management consultant and business fixer, Peter moved into oil and gas and now leads a team focused on natural gas, long-term investor protection, and biblical stewardship.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.Resources⁠⁠PBLA ⁠⁠(Permian Basin Landmen's Association)⁠⁠Texas Tech University Energy Commerce Program⁠⁠Need Help With A Project? ⁠⁠Meet With Dudley⁠⁠Need Help with Staffing? Connect with ⁠⁠Dudley Staffing⁠⁠Streamline Your Title Process with ⁠⁠Dudley Select Title⁠⁠Watch On ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠Follow Dudley Land Co. On ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Have Questions? ⁠⁠Email us⁠⁠More From Our GuestPeter Snell, Founder & CEO of ⁠PetroVybe⁠Connect with ⁠Peter on LinkedIn⁠More from Our Hosts⁠⁠Brent⁠⁠ on LinkedIn⁠Khalil ⁠⁠on LinkedIn

Kenneth Knott didn't set out to become a landman. His engineering plans got derailed by the 1985 downturn, a friend pulled him into petroleum land management at UL Lafayette, and an ARCO internship hooked him for life. Thirty-nine years later, he just wrapped up a career that included over 25 years at SM Energy, billions in transactions, and a leadership style that kept landmen with him for decades.Brent sits down with Kenneth for a Legacy Series conversation on what longevity in land actually requires. They cover surviving downturns, building team cultures where servant leadership is lived, not just talked, the mentors who shaped him, what separates good landmen from great ones, and his honest take on what AI means for the next generation of land professionals.Key Topics & Timestamps00:45 - Episode & Guest Intro03:10 - How Kenneth Became A Landman07:44 - Surviving Downturns And Longevity10:25 - Leadership Culture And Team Building17:13 - Big Lessons, Deals, and Mentors29:31 - The Mentors Behind Kenneth Knott38:19 - What Makes A Great Landman49:06 - Retirement Reflections And Next GenMemorable Quotes"Our goal is not to make you one of the best landmen. Our goal is to make you one of the best oil and gas professionals." — KennethKey TakeawaysServant leadership has to be lived, not just talked. Talking about servant values doesn't move the needle. Build the culture by aligning every hire on values, treating mistakes as lessons, and making the person next to you better every day.Control what you can, accept what you can't, and keep grinding. Surviving downturns in land work isn't about predicting cycles. It's about your work ethic, your willingness to do what others won't, and your focus on what's actually in your hands.Hire for values first, skills second. SM Energy's culture didn't happen by accident. Recruiting was deliberate about finding people who shared the values, because alignment is what lets you have hard conversations when things get rough.Aim to build great oil and gas professionals, not just great landmen. The best landmen understand the breadth of the business. Get curious in engineering, accounting, and marketing meetings. Over the long run, that's what separates the great from the merely competent.Internal networking beats external networking for deal-making. Knowing who to call inside your own company turns regular deals into great ones. The dumb question to a counterpart in another department is often the difference between a clean close and a problem nobody saw coming.AI is a force multiplier, but it can't replace technical foundation. The next generation of landmen has speed, curiosity, and access to tools landmen never had. The risk is taking AI output at face value without the technical baseline to QC it.About Our GuestKenneth Knott is a 39-year veteran of the oil and gas land business and the recently retired Vice President of Land and Business Development at SM Energy, where he spent more than 25 years. He started his career at ARCO and Vastar before joining SM Energy (formerly St. Mary Land & Exploration), and oversaw billions in transactions, including SM's repositioning out of the Rockies and into the Permian Basin with the QStar, Rock Oil, and Laredo acquisitions. Known industry-wide as "KK," he built a reputation for cultivating long-tenured land teams through a servant-leadership culture rooted in Louisiana grit and decades of field experience.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.Resources⁠PBLA ⁠(Permian Basin Landmen's Association)⁠Texas Tech University Energy Commerce Program⁠Need Help With A Project? ⁠Meet With Dudley⁠Need Help with Staffing? Connect with ⁠Dudley Staffing⁠Streamline Your Title Process with ⁠Dudley Select Title⁠Watch On ⁠YouTube⁠Follow Dudley Land Co. On ⁠LinkedIn⁠Have Questions? ⁠Email us⁠More From Our GuestKenneth Knott on LinkedInMore from Our Hosts⁠Brent⁠ on LinkedInKhalil ⁠on LinkedIn

Every landman is asking the same question right now: what do you actually do with AI? You've watched conference rooms argue about it, you've watched coworkers paste client emails into ChatGPT, and you still don't have a policy that tells anyone where the line is.In this freestyle episode, Brent and Khalil unpack what's actually working in their daily AI use, why most MSAs leave the policy gap to you, and the licensing conversation that's quietly coming for the profession.If you're trying to figure out where AI fits inside your team without losing your reputation or your bench of future landmen, this is the conversation to listen to.Key Topics & Timestamps01:04 - Freestyle AI Reality Check02:45 - Midland Takeaways and AI Questions04:29 - AI Policies and Email Pitfalls12:32 - Agentic AI and the Landman Future24:58 - Campus Pulse at Texas Tech30:33 - Dudley AI Roadmap Q2-Q435:11 - Focus Discipline, and WrapMemorable Quotes"If you're not actively giving guidance and training and tools and resources and policies, it is the Wild West." — Brent"It is a tool 100%, but the way that you treat it is not like you treat a tool. It's more of an employee." — Khalil"You have to be deliberate about your development of your talent." — Brent"When AI starts executing for you, you're not hitting keystrokes as much. You have to start focusing on your judgment. That's gonna be the most important thing." — Khalil"Start with a little snowball. Make a snowman." — BrentKey TakeawaysAI policies aren't optional. Without a red, yellow, and green framework (plus a gray zone for the in-between), teams default to the Wild West and confidential data ends up in tools no one's tracking.Treat AI like an employee, more than a tool. You wouldn't hand a new hire client emails on day one. The same caution applies before you paste client work into ChatGPT.The next two years force a hard call on agentic work. Companies have to decide what an agent can do, what a licensed landman signs off on, and how to verify the work behind the disclaimer.Entry-level work is what builds 10 and 20 year landmen. If agents take that work, the bench disappears, so companies need deliberate paths to get juniors real field experience.Pick one problem and ship it. Half-baked tools across six departments is how teams end up with a mess. Focus on one workflow, finish it, then expand.Quarterly cadence works for AI rollout. Start with education and discovery, identify your early adopters, give them room to build on real workflows, then push the polished tool company-wide.Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.ResourcesPBLA (Permian Basin Landmen's Association)Texas Tech University Energy Commerce ProgramNeed Help With A Project? Meet With DudleyNeed Help with Staffing? Connect with Dudley StaffingStreamline Your Title Process with Dudley Select TitleWatch On YouTubeFollow Dudley Land Co. On LinkedInHave Questions? Email usMore from Our HostsConnect with Brent on LinkedInConnect with Khalil on LinkedInConnect With UsReady to protect your land projects with integrated legal and title support? Our Dudley Select Title division works seamlessly with experienced oil and gas counsel to keep your deals on track and defensible. Contact us to learn how our complete energy partnership approach includes the legal expertise that matters when stakes are high.

The energy and infrastructure landscape is shifting faster than most land professionals can track. Lithium prices crashed 85% in two years, yet leasing activity stayed strong. The Smackover Formation emerged as a world-class brine source. Data centers from the East Coast are flooding into Texas, unfamiliar with mineral estates and the landmen who navigate them. Regulatory frameworks are still catching up, leaving operators navigating unprecedented territory.Reagan Marble, partner at Jackson Walker and a go-to counsel for lithium transactions, joins Brent and Khalil to break down what's actually happening in the market, where the real challenges sit, and what the next wave of land work looks like for professionals willing to adapt.Key Timestamps01:01 - Reagan Marble is Back!04:19 - Lithium Market Update10:07 - Regulatory And Permitting Hurdles18:18 - Consolidation And Lease Cleanup23:28 - Potash And Bromine Upside28:16 - Permian Produced Water Lithium30:52 - Dual Resource Oil And Lithium32:17 - Landman Skills Evolving Fast35:46 - Data Centers Enter The Chat38:30 - Minerals Water And Site Due Diligence44:11 - Power Crunch And Regulatory Battles53:17 - Five Year Outlook And Wrap UpMemorable Quotes"As an oil and gas lawyer and as a landman, we are in the people business and that part of the business will never be replaced, ever." — Reagan"Half of our business at Dudley Land Company didn't exist 10 years ago." — Brent"The next five years in lithium development is gonna make the first five or six years since 2020 look like we were moving at a snail's pace." — Reagan"The regulatory framework is gonna be pretty tough. Someone's gonna have to be the first one to go permit it and, good luck to whoever it is. Hopefully it's not me." — ReaganKey TakeawaysLithium market has shifted from land grab to consolidation. Prices compressed, but strong leasing activity persists. Operators who signed deals at peak bonus levels now face renegotiation pressure.Smackover Formation is world-class brine. Lithium concentrations near 800 mg/L compete with South America's best deposits and justify the Texas land rush.Brine production permitting is the next frontier. The Railroad Commission published rules, but no one has successfully permitted a brine production well yet. Primacy over Class 5 disposal wells remains with EPA, creating a regulatory chicken-and-egg problem.Data centers are the new oil and gas. East Coast PE and family offices are competing for Texas land and water, largely unfamiliar with mineral rights and the professionals who manage them. Water procurement and power availability are the real constraints.Landman skillset is expanding rapidly. Modern land professionals now work across oil and gas, renewables, lithium, CCS, and data centers. Human relationships remain irreplaceable by technology.About Our GuestReagan Marble is a partner at Jackson Walker in Fort Worth and a leading voice in energy transactions across oil and gas, lithium, and emerging infrastructure. His practice spans deal structuring, regulatory strategy, and the convergence of traditional energy and new resource development in Texas.⁠⁠Help us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ResourcesNeed Help With A Project? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Meet With Dudley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Need Help with Staffing? Connect with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dudley Staffing ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Streamline Your Title Process with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dudley Select Title⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch On ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Dudley Land Co. On ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe To Our Newsletter, The Land Dept. MonthlyHave Questions? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Email us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠More from Reagan MarbleReagan Marble, Partner at Jackson Walker LLPConnect with Reagan on LinkedInMore from Our HostsConnect with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brent⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on LinkedInConnect with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Khalil⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on LinkedIn