Oil & Gas Law in a Nutshell
Suprisingly good for a generalalized coverage. I wish that there was one for specific states.

Good for the beginner who has basic knowledge of contracts
I bought this book because I have to be involved in oil and gas transaction. It is very useful to cover basic cases and theories on this business area. However, because this book presumes that they understand the basic concepts of contract laws and realty laws, the readers are required to know 101 of, say, what is the reminder or what is the fee simple absolute etc. If you are not educated in the country which takes case law system, before reading it, it would be better to skim through the outline of contracts/realty law.

Good book for mineral owners as well as students
The third edition of this book was very helpful, and also included more recent case law cites than the second edition. I would assume this it true with the fourth as well (and there have been quite a few post 1995 court cases affecting royalty payments among other things). John Lowe is a well-respected professor of oil and gas law and has written many papers as well as several books on the subject.I find his writing style easy to understand, even for a layman like myself.I also found it to be much more than a "nutshell" approach in that the explanations of complicated ideas are fairly complete in most cases. He even touches on the structure and content of oil and gas sales contracts near the end of the book, which I found helpful as well.