Examining the title for a federal oil and gas lease has similar qualities to that of privately owned land lease. However, the title examiner must now search through both federal records from the Bureau of Land Management and county records.
Federal records compile into a status report. A status report is put together by an attorney and summarizes the content into a document that resembles a title opinion. However, a status report does not include any county documents and renders no conclusions or judgments on the data in the report.
Federal records include plat books. They are organized by township and range. Plat books contain three main items. 1. Actual plats which are maps that geographically display ownership and use of the land. 2. Historical indexes that list chronologically every federal action that affects the land. 3. Conflict sheets that detail the disputes among competing claims to federal lands.