My sibs and I recently inherited some land in CA along with an old Oil and Gas lease my Grandpa took out in the 40’s with the BLM. Various oil companies have drilled there over the years, and now we are trying to understand how our ORRI works and what, if anything, we can do with the land. The royalty seems very small compared to what others are getting today (1.5%), and since we’re under the same original contract I don’t know if we can negotiate something different?
Also the only thing that’s ever been on that land is oil companies, and the current oil company has wells, pipes, roads and tanks all over it. We’d like to do something else with it but don’t know what our rights are. The original lease language seems to give the Operator pretty free reign over how to use the land. Is anyone else in this same situation? I’d love to hear what you’ve done with your land, and if you’ve been able to negotiate a higher royalty.