I inherited property from my father and there is an old well and a newer well that is still pumping today. I have done a deed search to find the mineral rights were sold to Ford Motor company in 1947 for 600 dollars. Should there be a newer deed since this well is now being leased by a company out of Texas. Or is the old deed the only one. Also do these rights expire.
You didn’t mention which State you’re in, which might make some difference, as could the specific wording in the lease you are talking about. But generally, if there has been continuous production under that original lease, whether from that initial well or a later one completed under the requirements of the lease, then the original lease would continue in what’s considered it’s secondary term and the rights granted under the lease wouldn’t expire so long as production continued.
The production could be from that second well you mentioned, or a future well as long as the timing of drilling the additional well satisfied the terms of the lease.
When there is a change in ownership or operator of a lease the new operator often asks the current grantor under the lease to ratify the terms of the lease to confirming their agreement with its terms, and those documents are recorded.
On the possibility of a newer deed…it would be unusual over than many years if no other documents related to that mineral interest or original lease got recorded. Changes of operators or lease ownership can be documented through assignments rather that deeds, but those are also recorded.
If you’re in an area where there is a lot of producing acreage, a single recorded assignment could cover multiple wells or leases. Going through the Grantor Indexes in the County deed records from 1947 forward looking for an assignment, or deed, by Ford Motor that references the legal description of your property may be the only way to get into that chain of title, which could involve a lot of digging. If you found transfer of title by Ford then checking that grantee for later transfers would be the next step.
If you are mainly wanting to know who currently owns that mineral interest you can try contacting the County tax office or appraisal district and ask for the name of the person being billed for the annual property tax on that mineral interest. You could also try contacting the current well operator, but they may not be willing to release that mineral owner information to you.
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