My brother and I received a lease offer from OXY on rights that we have no idea about. Never heard of anything.
How do we find out who & where these rights came from? I have a small law firm that I use but I don’t know if they do oil & gas. I’ve left them a message but thought that maybe someone here could clear away some of the fog because I’m lost. Here is the info from the letter:
section 270 block 13 H&GN Rr co survey abstract no 1868 reeves county texas
This is wild. Letters from out of the blue yesterday.
Thank goodness I found the forum while searching.
Thank you ahea of time.
Hi LadyLW. The Texas RRC gis map https://gis.rrc.texas.gov/GISViewer/
shows five newly permitted wells by OXY in the A-1868 area.
Reeves County has a nice search page :https://reeves.tx.publicsearch.us/
If you search for your name or your brother’s name perhaps something will show
up that clarifies where the mineral rights have come from.
Always nice to find out you own something you didn’t know about.
Attached below is the Railroad Commission’s current map of that area with your Section 270 outlined in red. You’ll see five horizontal wells that have been permitted to cross that section, two being drilled from a location at the south end of Section 269 that joins 270 on the north, and three to be drilled from a site in Section 270 but all extending to the bottom of Section 271 that joins 270 on the south. Lot of activity there. I’m guessing the interest you own is already include in one or more of the units that Oxy has formed there.
Those wells are called the Oxy Young wells and there’s been considerable discussion about them in this Reeves County section of the Forum. Here’s a link where you can read those posts.
Before going any further in lease discussions you need to pin down exactly how much mineral interest you and your brother own there. If you haven’t tried already, I’d ask Oxy, or the landman who sent you the lease offer, to provide information on that ownership interest. If you have names of relatives you think you could have inherited that interest from you can search their names in the Reeves County deed records to locate the chain of title to that mineral interest. Here is a link to the deed records where you can do free searches. If you can’t figure out how to get started there come back here with the names you think are logical to search and someone will help you.
Once you’ve determine what you own there is a lot of information on the forum that will help you with basic questions on leasing. Enter the topic you want to search in the looking glass feature at the top of the page next to the block labeled New Topic.
Contact the party who sent the offer letter. Ask them kindly how are you and your brother received an interest, i.e. from whom, Through probate or a did convenience.
If probate, get The probate number, name of the decedent, etc. it would be great if they would send you a copy of the Final decree showing the heirs or successors. If the interest passed to you through a deed or conveyance, respectfully ask for a copy, book and page or whatever number you need to locate the record. I think you can do a grantor or grantee search my name in Texas. If so, you should run the name in which you received title In hopes of finding other lands that may have passed to you. If passed via probate, Definitely check the exhibit for other properties or interest you may have inherited. Your situation is not uncommon.
In the very least try to find out exactly what interest you own. Sometimes one receives an oil and gas lease offer with no knowledge of owning any oil and gas interest. Through investigation, one might find a list of other properties and or assets.
You may consider the assistance of a landman To determine how you received title and copies of the pertinent information. Also, nine times out of 10 the initial offer for a lease is a lowball. There are many great people on here that can give more information specific to the area of your properties on Bonuses And other important terms of the lease.
Tell the company who extended the lease offer you might entertain but would like this source of your ownership and other helpful information they are willing to provide.
Hi! My family and I own the smaller triangular land to the southeast of your property. I will say that this particular area has yielded a very productive well, so whatever action you take, make sure you’ve got good legal counsel. People on this forum seem to highly recommend Wade Caldwell, so I’d reach out to him for assistance. Hopefully this is a major blessing to you and your family.
We received 10K (thanks to our Austin area Texas counsel Patrick Flueckiger) an acre to lease our minerals in 270 and 271 in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. Good luck…
