Hello, first of all I am completely new to all of this. I have tons of questions that I am hoping someone can help me with. I figured I would give it go in here. I honestly don’t even know where to start with my many questions. I know the mineral rights have been in my family for at least a hundred years as I am certain that is the case with most owners. Where can I find a map that outlines the area of the mineral rights we own? Section 32, Township 4 North, Range 4 West
How do I find out if any gas or oil is being drilled for on that area? Sorry, but I wasn’t ever given any information on who, when, where, or how this works. We’ve had the rights for about 7-8 years since the passing of my mother. We have no idea what has taken place during that time and really not sure where to start. Thank you to anyone and everyone in advance for any responses I may get. I truly appreciate and look forward to learning as much as I can.
Welcome to the forum!
I will break out your questions and get you started.
1-Where can I find a map that outlines the area of the mineral rights we own? no such thing exists, but you can figure it out. Do you have any lease documents, Division Orders, any paperwork at all? Based upon what you have, I can refine the answer. one place to start looking for descriptions is at www.okcountryrecords.com. Look upder your parents’, grandparents’ names and see if there are any leases or deeds filed. If you inherited, what did the probate documents say?
2-How do I find out if any gas or oil is being drilled for on that area?
Yes, there is production in that section. There have been vertical wells and a horizontal well. There are several operators, so you will have to contact them to see if you have any back royalties that need to be paid. They will require title information such as the probate documents. The answer to the first question leads to which operators you need to contact . Most likely Daylight Petroleum and Citizen Energy for the vertical old wells and Marathon for the newer horizontal well.
The exact description of your acreage on the mineral deed will tell where in the section your minerals are. The vertical well operator will then be apparent.
Thank you so much for taking the time to try and answer some of my questions. I previously visited the county records your linked in your response. I have found a few documents there. One is the Quit Claim Mineral Deed. It does make mention of a family trust on that document. I did inherit the rights from my mother, however there was no will therefore no probate??
The other document I found was a Memorandum Of Trust. The legal description of the mineral rights does go into more detail there. Not sure if it is okay to put all of that info here or not. This was passed on approximately seven years ago after my mothers passing. We (my siblings) have not done a lot of research into this because we did not understand. I have been trying to research now because we were all recently contacted by a land man and of course that peeked our interest. Thank you in advance for all of your correspondence.
The trust probably granted them to you as a beneficiary. Probably should not post that on the forum. You may need to track that trust down to see if it was filed in the county or find the attorney listed on it to get a copy if you do not have one. The terms of the trust describe how items are to be distributed.
You can post the legal description here with any of the extra parts added such as SW4 NE4 sec 32 Township 4N-4W, etc. Then I can tell you which operators to contact for the shallow wells. Who is the trustee of the trust? They should have been collecting the royalties and then passing them to the proper beneficiaries per the terms of the trust. You need to get in touch with that person (or bank) for sure! If they were doing their job correctly, they “should have” impeccable records.
Tiff:
Often the Memorandum of Trust will have information on it such as the successor trustee name, name of the law firm that prepared the trust. A review of the trust document would reveal what is to happen with the minerals. Often they are to be disbursed to one or more of children. If so the trustee would deed the minerals according to its terms. You really need to get and review a copy of the trust.
Thank you for your response Richard. I am tracking all of that information down now, and will be making several phone calls tomorrow. Again, thank you! I am certain I will have many questions to follow.
It’s funny, I asked almost the identical question about my recently inherited mineral rights in eddy country, 2 days ago , and yet not a single person has answered. I thought it was because they didn’t answer “newbie” questions, but I guess not! Maybe I can glean and information from the answers here, even though they are different locations…
HGW:
I tend to only reply to posted where I am licensed to practice. Laws in NM tend to be different. An attorney in your state where the minerals are located should be consulted.