My grandfather was a petroleum engineer '80s-'90s out of Shreveport, and did work in Texas and Oklahoma. We inherited his royalties, at least what we know of, in a trust. After searching the OCC and Coal county records I have a few general questions regarding Coal Co, Oklahoma, (he also has some in Jefferson and Carter)and being new to this.
If there is no date specified, does an Assignee’s (my grandfather) interest expire, in Oklahoma?
*If the claim states an undivded eight and two-thirds (8 2/3) working interest in those certain oil and gas leases set forth and described in Exhibit “B” … [further down] … That, if any additional wells be drilled with respect to the oil and gas lease set forth and described in Exhibit “B” attached hereto and made a part hereof, the interest of the Assignee insofar as the new development is concerned shall not be “carried” working interest, but shall pay its proportionate share of all drilling [etc.] there are about 100 legal descriptions in the Lease Schedule, listed in Exhibit “B”, does he still have the 8 2/3 interest on those leases, ~40 years later?
The general area is Sections 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 Township 3 North Range 9 East, but a lot of research would be required to go over each legal description, Would this be worth spending the time to see if in fact there are producing wells on those properties or has it expired or changed ownership?
15-3N-9E- last production Feb 2005 Hanes wells Marlin Oil
16-3N-9E- last production Jan 1993 Bee Cee, Formor Operating
17-3N-9E current production Becca 1-17H Foundation Energy Management Drilled Sep 2008. If you inherited production, you need to contact the operators and get into pay status for every well. It does not happen automatically. They do not know that you exist until you tell them,
18, 19, 20. No current production.
If one lease covered all the acreage, then it would be worth it to check into the situtation. One lease in one county with a producing well could hold all the other acreage. If a separate lease for each tract, then time consuming, but fairly easy to tract down on www.okcountyrecords.com for a minimal fee and using the OK tax site. It is free to look for the wells.
https://otcportal.tax.ok.gov/gpx/gp_displayPublicPUNListSearchDownload.php
I have leases that have lasted 100 years! Carter has some interesting drilling now, so it might be useful to look it up.
It would be a good idea to get an attorney to read the terms of your trust and explain it to you. The working interest requires that you pay to participate in wells, so you need to know if those working interests were sold or converted to royalty interests so you know what your responsibilities are. You can sell working interests if the terms of the trust allow it. You can retain a percentage of the royalties. Any time you are dealing with a legal instrument such as a trust or LLC, get good legal help to understand how they work.
Basic answer- YES, it is worth finding out what you have so you can make good decisions. If you are new to all of this, the Mineral Help tab above is useful. Asking questions in the counties where you have ownership is helpful. Read the activity in those counties. The magnifying glass is the search tool at the top.