pugh clause
Pugh clause. Oil & gas. A provision in an oil-and-gas lease modifying the effect of most lease-pooling clauses by severing pooled portions of the lease from unpooled portions of the lease. • Drilling or production on a pooled portion will not maintain the lease for the unpooled portions. The clause is named for Lawrence G. Pugh, an attorney from Cowley, Louisiana, who drafted the first version in 1947. In Texas it is termed a Freestone rider. See POOLING.