CESSATION-OF-PRODUCTION CLAUSE

cessation-of-production clause.Oil & gas. A lease provision that specifies what the lessee must do to maintain the lease if production stops. • The purpose of the clause is to avoid the uncertainties  of the tempo-rary-cessation-of-production   doctrine. Cf. TEMPORARY-CESSATION-OF-PRODUCTION DOCTRINE . [Cases: Mines and Minerals  78.1(9). C.J.S. Mines and Minerals §§ 260–263.]

“Many oil and gas leases contain provisions intended to give lessees more certainty than is given by the temporary cessation of production doctrine. Usually, such provision takes the form of a temporary cessation of production clause, a provision in the lease that states that the lease will be maintained so long as production does not cease for more than an agreed period of time, usually sixty to ninety days…. So long as sixty days does not elapse without operations on the property, the lease will not terminate even though there is no production.” John S. Lowe, Oil and Gas Law in a Nutshell 258 (3d ed. 1995). [Blacks Law 8th]