My grandfather died in the 60’s and did not have a will. Recently on unclaimed property sites we put in his name for the heck of it and discovered he had over $20,000 in unpaid gas and oil royalties which we claimed and cashed out on and split among six heirs. Now we dug further and contacted the company who paid him, which is ConocoPhilips. They gave a paper which stated the wells he owned but they sold this to Hilcorp Energy. Most of the wells started drilling in the Late 90’s after he died somehow and most are still active. Most of the wells are in New Mexico. I’m just wondering how all of this possible and what are the options regarding this situation? ConocoPhilips says he owns the land and wells but I’m not sure how accurate that is. Obviously I’m completely not knowledgeable on this situation which is why I am asking. Plan to contact a lawyer in New Mexico soon who deals with this kind of thing. Do any of you have any recommendations? Thank you so much for any feedback!
Contact an attorney and get the title situation cleared up and each of the heirs into the correct pay status. It is quite possible that some of those wells have lasted this long and you may have new ones in the horizons if you in a good location. Learn as much as you can by reading on the forum in the county where the wells are. Read the Mineral Help tab above, consider joining the National Association of Royalty Owners to learn more about being a mineral owner. Read the investor presentations of Hilcorp and other operators in the area.
His interest is probably Overriding Royalty Interest. He was the operator, sold it to Conoco and retained ORRI, or perhaps a Working Interest, however they would be wanting you to pay your JIB joint interest billing, so probably ORRI. Since its Hilcorp I am guessing the property is in Northwest New Mexico. This is probably a good job for an independent landman.