paying quantities
paying quantities. Oil & gas. An amount of mineral production from a single well sufficient to justify a reasonably prudent operator to continue producing from that well. • Most jurisdictions interpret the language “for so long thereafter as oil and gas is produced” in habendum clauses to mean so long as paying quantities are produced. See HABENDUM CLAUSE. [Cases: Mines and Minerals 78.1(8). C.J.S. Mines and Minerals §§ 254–257, 264, 266.]