How to Get the Most Out of Rowland: Effective Prompts for Land Professionals

Energy land professionals navigate complex mineral rights, lease negotiations, and title documentation daily. Rowland is the AI land assistant specifically designed to streamline these industry-specific challenges. Based on implementation experience across multiple land departments, this guide offers a practical framework for crafting prompts that deliver precise, actionable information when needed most.

Why Prompts Matter: The Measure of the Quality of the Input will be Equal to the Measure of the Quality of the Output (Garbage In, Garbage Out)

The effectiveness of Rowland's assistance directly correlates with the quality of prompts. Consider the difference between these approaches:

When researching a potential acquisition, "Summarize this lease" might return a vague, less helpful answer. However, "Identify the following items in the uploaded oil and gas lease: Lessor, Lessee, Date, Royalty, Primary Term, Complete Legal Description, and Gross Acres. Also, please highlight additional provisions" delivers precisely what's needed to assess risk and opportunity.

The Anatomy of an Effective Prompt

Through work with land teams across the United States, three key elements consistently produce superior results:

• Specificity: The level of detail matters significantly. Rather than requesting "ownership information," specify, "Summarize the key findings and potential title issues from this uploaded division order title opinion and list all ownership of each tract contained herein.."

• Context: Providing background improves accuracy. Instead of asking to "review assignment language," try "Review assignment language in the Blackstone-Pioneer transaction documents regarding consent to assign to determine if the Johnson lease transfer triggers notification requirements."

• Keywords: Industry-specific terminology guides the AI. Incorporating terms like "depth severance," "Pugh clause," "Mother Hubbard provision," or "allocation wells" directs Rowland toward specialized information.

  
  

Practical Examples of Good Prompts

Based on common workflows in energy land management:

• Title Research:

  • Less Effective: "Make ownership report."

  • More Effective: "What are essential elements to note and include in an informative and helpful mineral ownership report?"

• Negotiations:

  • Less Effective: "Negotiation help"

  • More Effective: "What points of conflict often come up in negotiations, and what are your suggested resolution strategies?"

• Drafting:

  • Less Effective: "Draft MSA"

  • More Effective: "Please provide me with a draft of a Master Land Services Agreement. After that, ask me about specifics that may need to be included in the agreement. Then, offer suggestions to improve the draft."

    
    

Common Prompt Mistakes to Avoid

Through implementing Rowland across multiple land departments, several recurring pitfalls emerge:

• Overly Broad Requests: Rather than asking for "all information on the Smith lease," narrow the focus to "production requirements and shut-in royalty provisions in the Smith lease."

• Disconnected Multi-Part Queries: Instead of combining unrelated questions, structure related inquiries logically: "Analyze the division order for the Johnson #2H well, identify discrepancies with our internal decimal interests, and suggest reconciliation approaches."

• Insufficient Parameters: When requesting comparative analysis, specify metrics: "Compare drilling commencement obligations across Eastern New Mexico leasehold, categorized by primary term length and extension options."

  
  

The Subject Matter Expert Approach

Consider conceptualizing Rowland as a knowledgeable colleague who needs appropriate direction:

1. Provide Clear Instructions: "Please provide me with a draft of a Release of Oil and Gas Lease. After that, ask me about specifics that may need to be included in the agreement. Then, offer suggestions to improve the draft."

2. Supply Necessary Context: "This analysis supports an upcoming force majeure claim related to BLM permit delays affecting the development schedule in the northwest portion of the field."

3. Define Deliverables: "Format the output as a prioritized action list with lease numbers, expiration triggers, and recommended safeguard measures for land administration."

4. Refine Through Iteration: Be prepared to clarify or redirect based on initial results, just as during a collaborative project with the land team.

   
   

Moving Land Management Forward

When properly integrated, Rowland transforms from a supplementary tool to an essential component of efficient land management. A land department could reduce lease provision analysis time by 50% by developing a systematic prompt framework for standardizing new acquisition reviews.

Land professionals can extract maximum value from Rowland's capabilities by applying these prompt strategies, enhancing productivity and decision quality across operations.

Are you interested in elevating land department efficiency? Rowland offers an opportunity to experience firsthand how precise communication with AI can streamline challenging workflows in the energy sector.

Start your free trial today