I recently inherited mineral rights in Canadian county and was interested to see what all I have. I have never owned mineral rights before so do not know really anything. Also being out of state doesn’t help to know what I have. I inherited 31-11N-9W and 20-11N-9W. Any help or advice would be great. Thank you for your help.
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I really don’t know anything about it, so was just trying to figure out what I have. As far as what all the section is, is there any good activity there and so forth. I really don’t know anything about it so that is why it wasn’t very specific.
If you recently inherited, you need to make sure that your name and address and probate documents are properly filed in the Canadian county courthouse. That way you will be accessible to Landmen to find you.
For section 31, you need to contact Teocalli Exploration LLC 6608 N. Western Ave #404 Oklahoma City, 73116as there are two formally producing wells that Chesapeake PO Box 18496 Oklahoma City, OK 73154 just sold to them. You may have to hunt down royalties from Chesapeake. Depending upon where your minerals are in the section, you may or may not have royalties.
For section 20, you need to contact Roan Resources and United Energy Energy Operating to see if you have royalties on two wells there. Again, it depends on your complete description.
So the deed says all on both. What does that mean? Does each section have a certain amount of acres?
The deed or pertinent documents are conveying all of the interest owned by the grantor/decedent in that section of land. Yes, most section contain 640 acres, some more & some less, but for most purposes we use 640 acres.
Here is an article on how to read the Section-Township-Range in Oklahoma.
S-T-R Legal Land Descriptions in OK_Kletke-1.pdf (59.7 KB)
Your deed probably says some percentage or a certain number of acres in a certain section. It would be extremely rare to to have a whole section this many generations past the original granting. Most deeds have extra descriptive words such as Northwest Quarter of the Southwest Quarter (NW4 SW4) of section x. That would normally be 40 acres. You read the descriptions from right to left. The SW4 is 160 acres and the NW4 of that would be 40 acres.
Hello M_Barnes, this comment caught my eye because I’ve been wondering about this. How do you determine this? Does it depend on the well sections compared to the minerals full legal description? Please explain further for us newbies. Thanks!
Here is an example. Mineral description on the Deed: 1/8th interest in the NW4 NW4 of section 12-10N-7W. That would be reading from right to left… NW4 (160 acres), the 1/4th of that (now 40 acres) and 1/8th of that because grandpa had 8 kids. 40/8 = 5 net mineral acres.
The royalties would be calculated by this equation: net acres/actual spacing acres x royalty x % perforations in your section. Suppose you had a two section well with 40% of the well perforations in section 1 and 60% of the well perforations in section 12 and 20% royalty. Section 12 is a full 640 (not all sections are). Your decimal interest would be 5/640 x .20 x .60=0.00009375. That is the number that the Division Order would say. Your royalties would be subject to the required state tax and any post production charges that your lease allows.
Does that help?
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Yes! Thank you! I have bookmarked your reply for future reference. This consolidates a lot of information into one place.
I was so confused before: I thought the well had to be located within the exact same legal description (including NW4 NW4 of your example) as your minerals in order to get royalties. But now I see that it’s a proportionate percentage of the entire section.
My apologies that I derailed the original topic.
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It all depends upon the spacing of the well. If you have a vertical well in the E2 of the SE4 and it is spaced at 80 acres, but you have minerals in the NW4, then you do not get paid because your minerals are not in the spacing order. For these horizontals, they usually space the whole 640 (I have seen some lesser odd ones), so if you have acres in the spacing of the whole section, then you will get paid on any horizontal well in the section. If the horizontal is only in your section, then the last term would be 1.0 for 100%. If the well is split between two or more sections, then you use the percentage given in the final splits between sections. That calculation is based upon the borehole survey that they do on the well after it is drilled. They are usually posted in the OCC well records site along with the permit, spud, completion, etc.
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Another bookmark! As always, M_Barnes, your thoughtful and thorough answers are appreciated! I read everything in OK topics and often other states as well to gain insight from you and others who are so willing to share. Thank you!
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So the deed reads 31-11N-9W all and 20-11N-9W all does that mean I have the whole section of 640 acres?
I doubt that you would own all 640 acres in each section. That would be very unusual. I looked up the original patent data for section 31 and it had multiple owners in the whole section, so doubt that you have it all. Sometimes folks accidentally put the word “all” in but it really means “all that I own”. When you contact the operators, you need to tell them who you inherited from and you will have to prove title to get any information out of them. They may be able to provide you with the exact acres that they have in their records. They may be able to give you a copy of the paragraph of the title opinion that states the acres.
Here’s a link to a large booklet published by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission called “Basic Information for the Oklahoma Royalty Owner”, http://occeweb.com/OG/Basic%20Information%20417.pdf. I strongly recommend it for anyone who owns minerals in Oklahoma. Among other things, it explains the Federal land survey system used in Oklahoma and many other states. Has a lot more helpful information on all kinds of topics of interest to royalty owners.
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