My siblings and I inherited mineral rights in Burke County North Dakota in 2001 and just now finding the time to look into it. At that point in 2001 I believe there was not much value in the mineral rights. Can anyone please tell me whether or not there is value now? I do not know much about this so if anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. T162N, R92W Section 4: S1/2 NW1/4 lots 3,4- less portions deeded to the Great Northern Railway company and less that portion of the S1/2 NW1/4 south of the great northern railway. Thank you very much in advance.
You may or may not own them anymore. In North Dakota, you have to claim the mineral rights every 20 or 25 years if I remember correctly. Otherwise, they revert to the surface owner if they want to claim them. It is called the dormant minerals act. You had best look it up. I had to claim all of mine when I inherited. The county has a special form that you have to use. Productive minerals do not have to be claimed, but the estate attorney recommended claiming them all under the scheduling.
At the moment, there is no production, but there was some leasing in 2019 which indicated some potential interest.
Don’t panic just yet. The minerals don’t automatically pass to the surface owner. It is actually a bit of a process for the surface owner to take title where the surface owner publishes notice of the claim. In fact, most title attorneys (I am one) require the surface owner to file a quiet title action to confirm it. The notice is required to be recorded in the county so you can search the county records and confirm whether or not the surface owner has filed such a claim.
That being said, Martha is absolutely correct that mineral owners should file a statement of claim or do something else to claim the mineral rights (lease, convey, etc.) every 20 years.
To answer the question you originally asked, there is not a lot of activity here. You are far outside the core part of the Bakken. If you tried to sell it today, you would not get much for it. You are far better off holding it for now unless you really need to sell.
I agree. Don’t panic. File the forms and hang on for the future. Who knows what will happen. Make sure each heir files their name and address and the title documents in the county courthouse. That way interested parties can find you.
Contact the Recorder of Burke County, Lynette Nelson at (701) 377-2818 to obtain the forms. If you like reading legalese, read the North Dakota Century Code 38-18.1 regarding what the surface owner has to do to take your rights. I went through the process in McKenzie County some years back. No big deal. Lots of oil in McKenzie…
Before the surface owner can quiet title your minerals they have to do a due diligence search for the owners of record and notice them and publish the intended quiet title action, usually in the local newspaper. If your name(s) and current addresses are on the mineral deed, they have to notice you directly, i.e. by mail. In my case an unscrupulous attorney sent notices to my deceased father and my aunts to his law office address. They went into court and told the court they had complied with the due diligence search and the court approved the quiet title. Unfortunately for the surface owner and his attorney, we found out about it. If they had sent notice to the last address of record, the notice would have been sent to my living mother’s address, which it wasn’t. In the end the surface owner had to return our minerals, and the attorney is no longer practicing law. Get the North Dakota Statement of Claim form and send it in ASAP.
Shady happens daily and world-wide and it is a relief to find a bit of a happier ending in the case of the attorney no longer practicing law.
In the 1995 timeframe a similar unscrupulous attorney from the county in which my family resided in WI just “happened” to acquire land and other issues by family members to include that of my own family and how comical it was to find that same attorney acquired land in ND after being aware of my family’s mineral rights. Eventually that attorney ended up in prison for embezzlement, got out and lived in a trailer park until his death and ignored by his son who became a prosecuting attorney and ultimately a judge in that same original Wi county. Think again that attorney’s have nothing up their sleeve to include stealing from clients all the while giving the impression of being a goody two shoes.
Thank you for pointing out this gross error in the system for those unable to research on their own thinking all the while that all is on the “up and up” isn’t always 100%
I think everybody very much for the advice and information I have received on this matter. I said thank you letters to you everybody via email but it did not go through. So I am saying my thanks here like I should’ve done in the first place, sorry about the delay.
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I think everybody it should read.
It keeps spellchecking it wrong when I send. I thank everyone!
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