My dad was left mineral rights by his uncle in his uncle’s will. My dad left those minersl rights to me. They are in Lea County: Sec 1-17E-37S. However, I have no paperwork as to ownership. Can anyone help as to how I can go about tracking down ownership?
Ruth,
This is a tough problem, but one that’s not hard to solve.
My 2 cents is contact the County Clerk’s Office, they can show you how to use their on-line research tools.
Or go down to the Clerk’s Office in person and ask the clerk for help - Beware, If you ask a bit loud, you’ll probably get the attention of a local landman who may help but may not have your best interest in mind!
Or contact AAPL - American Association of Landmen Contact | AAPL (landman.org)
Thank you! Will the clerk be able to tell me how to find out if there are any wells on the section?
Also, I can already see an error in your legal description. You probably meant Sec 1-17S-37E (swap south and east).
For that information you I’ll need to go to NMOCD (oil conservation division) website and look at wells, pooling orders, permits etc for your section and tract. County clerks deal with filing of legal documents.
I doubt the clerk will have any info about wells in that section.
There is a single producer. Berry 1. It is dedicated to the 80 acres comprising the S/2 of the SW/4 of Sec 1. It makes about 10 bopd. OCD Permitting - Well Details
This acreage is on the Central Basin Platform and as such does not have obvious horizontal development potential.
Here is map of all wells in the area with the active producers blue. Note that the wells nearby are dots (vertical wells).
Hi Ruth,
Unfortunately, many people find themselves in the same position as you and there is not a easy answer. If you call the clerk, they are going to tell you that you are welcome to search their records, but they won’t do it for you. If you want to know what you own, you may have to hire a landman to help you. There are some who advertise here on this site and the county clerk might be able to provide a name as well. If you would like to search yourself, you could do it in person or you could try one of the third-party websites like basinlandrecords.com or courthousedirect.com, which have some but not all of the county-recorded instruments.
You could start by searching for your uncle’s name and seeing if you can find any deeds in/out of him and if he leased it. That will at least give you a complete legal description, but a little more digging will be required to figure out how much interest he owned.
As far as updating the records, eventually their estates may need to be probated and distributed to your father and then to you. This can be more expensive than the value of the mineral rights so many people in your situation will record an affidavit of heirship instead. You can look online for a form or hire a landman to help you. It won’t pass title from your uncle down to you, but it will put oil and gas companies on notice that you are claiming the interest. In the event there is future activity on these lands, they will know to contact you.
Best of luck!
I am so appreciative of all of your responses. They have been very helpful.
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