Hi, my father was an operator of a well in Montgomery County, KS. He has since passed away and to my knowledge he never received anything from a producing well, how would I go about following up on this info? And is there a percentage that operators recieve or how does that work?
There are so many variables at play here.
Do you have any paperwork of his that might help narrow down what well he operated and/or received payments from?
Have you ever checked unclaimed funds (MissingMoney.com)? Did he operate in his own name or a company name?
It is not uncommon that an operator may sell a well at some point. Sometimes they keep what is called an overriding interest (where they can continue to receive a small portion of the well production in the form of royalty payments). It’s tough to know if he is entitled to payments without knowing 1. If the well in question is still producing 2. If he reserved an overriding interest or had some other type of royalty interest. 3. He may have had a non-operated working interest which requires the payment of expenses in order to receive a share of the revenues. If there was non-payment of those expenses, the revenue may be in suspense.
Montgomery County is shallow stripper wells with marginal production. Wells can be shut down for a number of years due to low commodity prices or the need for expensive repairs.
Hopefully you have some documentation that can narrow down the search considerably. Let me know what you have in your possession to review and I will provide you the next steps to get the well / production data.
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