Inherited Mineral Rights -- Roosevelt County

Montana Mineral Rights Roosevelt County, MT
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To try and make a long story somewhat short, My family inherited about 120~ acres of mineral rights from my grandma and for about as far as we can tell, there has been no leasing/activity on it since 2010 or since she had passed and have been more or less sitting there un touched (AFAIK). My grandma’s estate was mid sized at one point and when her health declined it went mostly to that, and by the end all she really had to her name were the Mineral rights, that no one (my uncle or dad) really had any idea of what to do with, so they stopped leasing it for awhile, and at one point probably forgot about it.

Recently (april) my uncle who handled the “paperwork” of my grandma passed away, My dad had talked about these mineral rights for awhile but he and my uncle were somewhat estranged at the time, so coming together to take care of these mineral rights wasn’t really something they wanted to do or cared about. I also think not much activity was really happening in the area at the time so maybe it just was moot too.

However last week someone from continental resources reached out to me looking for my grandma, and or her heirs to lease the mineral rights. My dad isn’t really a business savvy person (me neither really but here we are), so now i am trying to figure it all out.

The area is in Roosevelt County, Township 28N Range 57E area Section 23 and 26 (i think… the numbers all really confuse me still), they are offering what i feel is a decent price per acre plus royalties, for what feels like nothing but curious what kind of wiggle room I have if at all. Should I be reaching out to other companies for counter offers or getting some kind of mineral rights appraisal? – is 120 acres of mineral rights worth all of that? I would like to go with this guy (if he’s legit) for kinda sparking this all off, but also don’t want to get screwed over if we could be getting thousands per an acre or something rather than what they are offering.

Also is 120ish acres worth keeping really? I.E sell it off? i’m guessing this is definitely subject to opinion but curious what peoples thoughts are here, and to be clear my family isn’t really looking to sell but we were somewhat curious what that kind of offer would be so we did ask about it, and boy howdy did he get somewhat excited about that even being a possibility.

Is this area active right now? Ive found a few maps where it seems like there’s a ton of activity to the east of us but not so much around us at the moment other than in the township east of us. The “landman” (i assume thats what he’s called) wasn’t trying to make any promises of that they will drill or be willing to drill but he said he would guess that they would be doing it soon if he had to take a guess. Maybe this is to get my family sign a lease, but he also called out of the blue when my name really isnt on anything other than it was related to our old address that i grew up in, so i assume that doing that much digging just to get to us, it must be at least a little bit real/serious.

Are there any kind of possible scams i should look out for to make sure we dont get screwed over somehow or warning signs? This feels close to the Nigerian Bank scams that you get via email sometimes, but he seems to have far more info about us and my familys ownings that we actually do at points.

Really any general help other than me constantly asking google questions i come up with “reddit” on the end of it in hopes i find something would be greatly appreciated.

TLDR;

Inherited mineral rights in 28N 57E Roosevelt County, Gas company randomly called in to give an offer, now what?

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You should find a Montana attorney who can guide you through the process to ensure that the minerals are properly titled and that your share of them is established. The attorney can advise you any proposed transactions. There is a myriad of scams, searching through this forum will reveal many.

This post is not legal, tax or investment advice. Reading or responding to this post does not create an attorney/client relationship..

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Kraken Resources/Operating has a permit to drill a two section horizontal well in sections 28/33 and into 4 to the south. Heritage Energy has permits in 29N-57E to the north of you. Kraken has most of the permits nearby.

White Rock Energy filed quite few leases in your two sections over the last few years, in 2022. Royalty rates ranged from 16.67% (1/6th) to 33% (which is fairly rare). Those leases expire in 2025, so Continental may be coming in as the operator now.

You would need to talk to a MT attorney. Given who is leasing, you need someone on your side to negotiate. Their agent is not your friend as they work for Continental. You also need the title to be clear. If the agent got excited, you had best be cautious. That particular company has boasted in the past that they would make several times over what they offered in buying acreage. What you think is “decent” may not be the going rate for leasing or buying. You want the highest royalty that you can get if you lease. You may not have 120 acres if you are looking at old leases. They have the gross tract acreage on them, not the net. So you need to find out the net. Do not lease both sections on the same lease. They can be identical leases, but do not do both on the same one.

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Hello, I own rights in the same area through inheritance and it is filed with Roosevelt County. Do you have email addresses for Draken, Heritage, White Rock, and Continental or know where they can be found. Thank you. Pamela

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Hi pamela,

I don’t have any email addresses for any of the companies other than the guy who hit me up out of the blue and said he worked for continental (havent had time to do due diligence to make sure he’s not a lease flipper yet but gut says he’s not).

I could reach out to him and let him know you were looking to lease as well i suppose. But i am also not 100% sure if that’s something thats ok to do here.

You might want to see if you can find a lawyer who can help you with it, because you will eventually need one anyways to read over the lease and make sure there isn’t anything funky in there as well. The one i reached out to said he was going to talk to a landman in that area and see what the deal is but im also starting from ground zero right now, so im learning as i go.

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I would appreciate anything you could do in regards to a contact. Have been looking on my own over the years. Any chance you might be a member of the Nielsen family? Thank you. I can provide an email address as well.

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Thanks @M_Barnes ! The net acreage is 120~ish the gross was around 360 i believe. Is there a way to check the leases going on in my area as well? We have reached out to a Texas lawyer whos licensed in montana, but it seems hes more a nuts and bolts kinda guy on how the companies will pay rather than a negotiator. He said he was going to reach out to a Landman and see if he could get some more info for me as well but not sure how quick that’ll all happen as he was doing us a favor (friend of a friend).

One question i also have is typically how quick do these companies need to get leases signed? I’d imagine that if they are interested and I need more time to figure out the deed and title business on my family’s end (grandma had a will but never went through probate and it excluded one of the brothers who was estranged and caused a lot of heartache to the family) it might be fine but he did say that he was trying to figure this out sooner rather than later. He is also convinced that regardless if there was a will or not because it never went through probate in the first place right after my grandmas death it wont be valid. (also reaching out to a estate lawyer to see what our options are here if any.)

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If your name and address and description of the acres are properly filed in the county courthouse, then the landmen will find you. The operators often use contract landmen, so having the operator contact number may or may not be helpful. You can look all of them up on a search engine.

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“it depends”.
In the meantime, it would be wise to get your title issue straightened out. You cannot lease or get royalties without clear title.

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In your experience do the oil companies ever get cold feet? Or if they’re interested they are interested type of thing. Just worried trying to get this title straightened out might take a bit.

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It depends…It all depends upon economics and what fits their portfolio plan. So sometimes, companies change their plans and move elsewhere. Sometimes they stay. Go ahead and straighten out the title and then you are ready for the future.

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Hi everyone I’m Tracy I’ve been here for about a week and have received some good information on here that I will be checking out this week, thank you to those who replied.

My question today is if I were to give you the location of my mineral rights on Indian hills in Carter county ok would I be able to tell me if anything is or has been going on?

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Post your question for Carter in Oklahoma Mineral Rights-Carter County with your section, township and range and someone on the forum can probably give activity.

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My understanding is that an oil company (Landman) will contact you should they be interested in exploring in your area, That said, it would be best to ensure that your mineral rights have been legally recorded which can be costly especially should you be out of state and dealing with probate (you’ll need attorneys at your state and another in the state where the property is located. I have reached out to a few exploration companies and only received not interested so for me its sit and wait.

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