Thanks for your reply. I have been being paid for the Gustafson. I did
not understand about the spacing on the vertical wells.
XTO has been granted permission to co-mingle the oil from Section
34/151/99 into one central tank battery. Does anyone know why this is done. is there anything that impacts royalties paid to each mineral owner.
Thank you. Nice to hear from you. I am looking forward to following the next phase of this oil journey. All 14 of the proposed wells in our sections are in “Active” status as of this month. It has been such a fun learning experience. Watching the pot boil, so to speak. Have a good day, stay warm.
I did read in the well file and it all seemed very straight forward. My concern was why others were no done that way as well. I thought maybe the wells were not producing as desired so they just dumped it all together, but they are good wells. I didn’t want to just ignore it in case someone had the philosophy that “whats mine is mine and thanks, i’ll have a little of yours too.”. I sometimes think I have to be skeptical of everything.
Deloris, in the wellfiles there should be the operators plan which was submitted to the state, to meter each wells production so what goes into the tanks can be properly allocated. The operator needs less land for tank batteries if they co-mingle. There is room for abuse, so it’s worth keeping an eye on unless the operator has the same interest in and pays the same amount in royalty in each section. I would not assume anything until I had reason to though.
Deloris, I don’t think it was a new source of information, I think it was an old one. I think it likely he called the oil and gas comission and asked, which is always an option.
How did that fella know why those other XTO well permits were cancelled. And that it was because of airport construction in Watford City. I like new sources of information.
If i lived in the area, I would be a real pest. I’m a real curious George.
Thanks for sharing.
I have been going through the exhaustive process of reopening my grandmother’s estate and trying to straighten out all her holdings. ND unclaimed property told me there is a considerable amount of money there so it has been worth the time. I am down to the wire, I think I’ve got this HOWEVER, the State of ND is requiring that I provide a copy of a deed for a particular plot, namely, 12-152-96 in the name of my grandmother. I have found an Assignment of Royalty dated 1937 and completely lost the trail from there. (I won’t even go into the amount of hours spent researching to find what I have).
My question: What if there is no actual DEED and this is what oil company has been using. There is a misspelling of my grandmother’s name in the information from the oil company involved which also exists in the Assignment of Royalty. Could this work to obtain the funds in question?
I’m not a ND attorney, but a nonparticipating interest is normally one with no executive rights (right to sign leases) so it would not be unusual that your grandmother would not have signed the leases. Ask if you can’t do a PR Distribution Deed from your Grandmother’s Estate of the NPRI (or NPMI) into your mother’s name and from there, repeat for your mother’s estate into her heirs.
I understand why she signed no leases. I reopened my Grandmother’s estate because they royalties are still in her name. I am her PR and the royalties go to me, an aunt, an uncle and 4 cousins. I am my mother’s only heir as far as the mineral rights go. I’m told that, since the particular parcel that as the money in suspense was not in Grandmother’s estate inventory (there was a lot of mineral rights that were not) and that they have to be transferred to the estate. But why would all the other old estates have to be reopened?
I had to reopen the estates of my Grandmother and mother to obtain some funds held by the State of ND in my grandmother’s name. I did this. Now, because she had a nonparticipating interest, there are no leases in her name but there are leases in the name of the person who assigned her the royalty. I am told I have to transfer these assets into my name at this point. Does anyone know how that is done? I have an attorney but he is saying that the estates of uncles and aunts who passed years ago all have to be reopened also. I really don’t think that is the case. I am my grandmother’s PR so how do I transfer her interests into my name at this point? Any ideas out there? Is the attorney correct?
Our family too, has had to deal with probate issues; some of which should have been addressed 25 years ago and never were. (Mineral interests started with nine brothers and sisters back in the 1940’s - you can imagine the nightmare it was by 2010, after it had turned into a multigenerational, multistate, multifaceted headache.)
My brother and I pretty much threw up our hands in frustration and hired McKennett Forsberg Voll & Gjovig, P.C. in Williston. (This is not intended as an advertisement - just sharing our personal experience.) Our experience with this firm was very positive. They resolved all of our outstanding issues, in multiple jurisdictions, in a timely manner. My brother and I were both pleased with their services and cost.
I’m sure there are countless families in similar situations. We thought it best to just clean it up so future generations won’t have the headache. We also created a Gmail account as a repository for all things relating to the issues, so future generations have access to the history. (We emailed ourselves PDF’s of all the documentation etc. to store in the Gmail account.)
I hindsight, I’m very glad we didn’t try to resolve the issues on our own. I suspect we may have created more problems than we solved.
Shooting in the dark here but if you are your GM’s PR, why not just file a corrected inventory showing the interests correctly and do a PR deed of all to the heirs. If you have opened either a ND Probate (if she was a ND resident at her death) or an Ancillary Probate in ND (if she was not a ND resident at the time of her death), you should be able to file a certificated or exemplified copy of the revised probate in the county of the mineral interest. I assume your entire GM’s interest is coming to you. Portion going to GM’s sibling’s heirs from GG-Parents should be theirs to deal with (unless your GM left a portion to them in her estate in which case the PR only has to deal with the transfer to them (not through them to their heirs) if that makes sense to you.
Also check the Assignment of Royalty and see if there is any “grant and convey” language - title doesn’t govern the conveyance effect. I suggest you request a second opinion from another attorney or ask your current attorney to provide a better explanation.
PS: This is not legal advice as I am not licensed in ND.
This is an interesting line of discussion. Like Ms. Moore, I am an attorney, but not admitted in ND so I do not and cannot give any legal advice. Still, I can throw in my two cents worth wearing my non-attorney hat.
Here is the problem with trying to handle it here:
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No ND attorney is going to opine for fear of creating a potential conflict for other business (since many represent oil companies) or creating potential malpractice liability without getting paid for the risk;
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No non-ND attorney can properly give you any legal advice on this (which is why both Ms. Moore and I are being so careful) regarding a ND legal matter;
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A layman’s opinion may not be reliable.
All of that aside, I think that the suggestion that you press your own attorney for a solution or get a second opinion is a really good one. This will not be the first time a ND court has run into this and the court may be willing to consider a reasonable solution. Obviously, the court’s main concern will be whether someone is trying to pull a fast one and cut out some unsuspecting heirs.
I would be interested to hear how this worked out when all is said and done.
Good luck.
Thank you all for your thoughtful answers. I believe the other heirs are just doing what the attorney says to do. I find it interesting that he went around me, and directly to them in this matter. I think that, as PR, I should have at least been notified that this was happening. There is a substantial amount of money owed our family and the attorney knows this. I think he is just getting greedy at this point. I want everything done properly and I want future generations to not have to deal with all this hassle. I just don’t want to get taken for a ride in the meantime. I think if he had been honest with me to begin with I would feel differently.
I am going to sever my interest from the rest of the family. I will serve as PR until Grandmother’s estate is finished, but then I’m on my own.
This is truly getting ridiculous. The State of ND has agreed with me and my research and is cutting the estate a check for what has been held in suspense. We can’t, however, get an Order for Distribution from the court in ND until all the other estates are reopened. I know this is just pure crap but I can’t get a straight answer out of the family attorney and most of my questions he simply ignores. I have had enough.
I live in Texas. We get property tax statement from the various counties in which we have mineral interest. We have mineral interest in McKenzie Co., ND, but we have not received tax statements for mineral interest. Does anyone know which agency I can call to find out the value of the mineral interest?
We also live in TX, but have minerals in several other states. We only get tax statements from Colorado and Texas, never gotten one in ND or OK.
I don’t think ND levies real estate taxes on royalty interest owners, so ND does not calculate the value of that mineral interest. Besides, there is generally only a very loose association between assessed and actual values (I live in a state where the assessed value to set at historical acquisition cost plus a max of 2% per year plus any improvements, so the assessed values are often way out of wack with current fair market value). If I ever needed to ballpark the value, I’d probably start with those unsolicited offers we all get or, if enough money were at stake, get a professional appraisal.