My deeds stated there were past mineral rights kept by various prior owners, but my Grantor was not reserving any. I followed deed history back to early 1900’s, and found lots of grantors reserving 1/32, 1/8, 1/4 etc and passing on similar amounts to grantees, on various portions of what is now my land. There has been no leases or any drilling for the 20+ years of my ownership, and for several years prior to that.
Does this mean all prior rights, since not used, pass to me? If rights that prior owners held have no documented inheritance to heirs, do they just disappear and revert to surface owner? Many of these go back 100+ years and suspect any heirs alive today may not even know they have inherited rights. And how on Earth does anyone know how all the various percentages work out, and may exceed 100%?
So bottom line as I consider selling my property and passing through any rights I may have, should the buyer be concerned that his surface rights could be exposed to some future mineral rights owner leasing to oil driller?
There are also numerous Royalty rights reserved along the line, but without the mineral rights they can’t lease to a producer, correct? Those royalty rights are only good if some mineral rights owner starts leasing and producing, right?
The answer may depend upon the state in which your minerals are located. Some states do revert to the surface owner. They may not go to you. Experienced land mean are able to track the title back to patent as best as is possible. They do make note of irregularities that need to be cleared up.
The mineral rights have dominance over the surface rights. If the surface is severed from the minerals (which is quite common), the surface owner could be exposed to future drilling. Only if the minerals and surface are still fee simple (unsecured) can drilling be deterred if the mineral owner owns all of the mineral rights.
Those who control the executive rights to the minerals are the ones who can lease. Royalty rights are tied to production.
re: should the buyer be concerned that his surface rights could be exposed to some future mineral rights owner leasing to oil driller?
short answer: Yes, if one doesn’t own 100% of the minerals, then the possibility exists that someone would drill it
re: …Royalty rights reserved… without the mineral rights they can’t lease to a producer, correct? Those royalty rights are only good if some mineral rights owner starts leasing and producing, right?
short answer: You are mostly correct… but there are several classifications of “royalty rights” so we must be cautious about specifically what we are discussing…
Long answer: to say “the royalty rights are only good” is misleading. A royalty reservation/conveyance is binding no matter if the property is in production.
However, production can sometimes determine if/when the severed royalty terminates (some documents specify that the severed royalty terminates with the OGL… we call this a “Term Royalty”)
re: Those royalty rights are only good if some mineral rights owner starts leasing and producing, right?
It may be more accurate to say:
Those royalty rights are only paid for production when a mineral rights owner leases and the property begins producing.
but again… there’s a LOT of nuance in O&G terminology and the words used make all the difference at every link in the chain of title.