I have no official standing or particular education in this area except for the SOHK..school of hard knocks. Long time ago Dad told us kids "never sell your mineral rights"..if anyone is interested in purchasing then they will probably want to lease as a 2nd option, especially since there is production in that area..
First search your paperwork for any official leases/deeds/ or lease ratifications, tax records. You will need the information on them to properly identify your property...if you already have a legal description,then you are far ahead of the game. Call your State Railroad Commission, or google it online. I believe they can help or point you in the right direction. Try these. Your County Clerk should be able to help you as well.
I think you will have to do the legwork yourself to figure out if you own the minerals. When I needed to figure out some mineral acres in Roosevelt County, I went to the county courthouse, and spent an 8-hour day elbow-to-elbow with landmen going through the books. The county clerk will not do the work for you, but he/she will show you what books to go through. It can be a long slog following this stuff out if parts of your property have been sold over the years.
You will need to have the legal description to follow it out.
I think you need a title co. to research your chain of title for reservations. If you make a sale you will probably need the title work done anyway. Good luck.
The first step is look at the deed (deeds) where you acquired the place. Did the seller reserve all minerals? If so you own none. If not, then you need to hire someone to determine what you own.
Title must be run on your deeded acres back to the original US patents on each separate homestead tract. That entails checking the records on the various 160, 320, or 640 acre homesteads which later became part of your 4000 acres. So unless you need a daunting "summer project", hire an abstract company in Lewistown, or a landman out of Billings. Don't know the cost. It won't be cheap. Yet the cost is worth it to learn what minerals you own (if any), and what you are potentially selling.
A landman could also value your minerals. I don't recommend it, yet you can proceed with your sale without knowing what you own. In the sale; IF the buyer doesn't ask for them, write the deed with "reserving unto Grantor (you) all mineral and royalty rights". IF the buyer does want minerals included, it is common on Montana ranch land sales for the seller to reserve "half of all minerals". So regardless of what minerals you own (1% or 100%) you've kept "half" and the seller acquired "half" of what you had (0.5% or 50% to them in this example).
Although I don't know your ranch, I can guarantee you don't own 100% under the entire place, nor do you own equal amounts (say 25%) under all 4,000 acres of it. At some point you'll want to know where you own minerals and in what amount. So hire someone to run the records and find out where you stand.
P.S. Looks like you have a beautiful place. Hope this is helpful.
What is an "abstract company" or "landman"? I don't want to perform the search myself. I want a pro to do it. I also want that pro to insure his/her work. In essence, I want title insurance on their findings. The local title companies will not perform MR searches.
I have a potential similar situation that I need input on. My father-in-law purchased farm/ranch lands in 1960, sold them in 1993, and passed away in 2002.
The Register of Deeds has looked at both the purchase and sale of the land deeds, and says there was no mention of Mineral Interests on either deed, so any minerals they may have had, went with the sale.
This land is in South Dakota, and they're permitting more and more oil drilling, but not to the amount North Dakota is.
My question is, do you think this MRI can be challenged as to ownership, as long as it's within the Dormancy Mineral Act statute?
Marc, since I am not qulified to provide what you need, I can refer you to an attorney in Austin, TX. who is highly qualified in such matters. Let me know if you want his name, or if you would prefer someone closer to your property…perhaps he could refer you to such a professional there. Let me know. Keep the faith…
I'm unsure if I understand what you're asking, but if I do...
A) Yes a land sale without mention of minerals in the deed means the buyer acquired all minerals the seller had. So your father-in-law may have acquired minerals when he bought the land. Yet he then released and sold any minerals he had when he sold the land.
B) North Dakota has a dormant minerals law but as far as I know South Dakota does not. However, it would not apply in your situation anyway since the party who bought the land from your f-in-law also bought his minerals in the process. So the surface owner (as of 1993) already owns the minerals and wouldn't need to claim them as dormant minerals. Based on what you wrote I don't think there is anything for you to pursue. Snues said:
To Anyone,
I have a potential similar situation that I need input on. My father-in-law purchased farm/ranch lands in 1960, sold them in 1993, and passed away in 2002.
The Register of Deeds has looked at both the purchase and sale of the land deeds, and says there was no mention of Mineral Interests on either deed, so any minerals they may have had, went with the sale.
This land is in South Dakota, and they're permitting more and more oil drilling, but not to the amount North Dakota is.
My question is, do you think this MRI can be challenged as to ownership, as long as it's within the Dormancy Mineral Act statute?
Marc, if the deeds to you didn't have any mineral reservation then you acquired all minerals the seller had. However then the question becomes; What minerals, if any, did that seller own? That can only be determined via a record search in the County courthouse in Lewistown.
A "landman" (male or female) is someone who does that sort of record research for a living. There are thousands of folks who do this. You can hire one from anywhere (MT, TX, CO...) yet they will have to physically go to Lewistown, MT to do this job for you. That is why I suggested seeking one in Billings, MT.
My reference to an "abstract company" is essentially the same as a title company. Montana counties don't maintain tract books (books which list every deed or conveyance on each section of land). So the local abstractor, or title company, often fill this role. For a fee they'll provide chain of title info on specific tracts of land. By seeking all mineral reservations on prior deeds they can determine what minerals you own. This is the same process the "landman" would be doing in the courthouse's records.
You want to know "What minerals do I own?". A far more involved search of "Who owns the minerals under all my land?" would be needed by an oil company, but not by you. I really believe you need some basic information on ownership more than "Title insurance." If you find that you do own some minerals then a local landman may be able to provide you with a fair valuation of them. That is my two bits. Good luck.
Marc Bowman said:
All replies are much appreciated.
My deeds have no MR reservation on them.
What is an "abstract company" or "landman"? I don't want to perform the search myself. I want a pro to do it. I also want that pro to insure his/her work. In essence, I want title insurance on their findings. The local title companies will not perform MR searches.
Thank you, the response you gave answered the questions I had. It would have been a nice windfall to be able to claim those minerals if they didn't go with the sale of surface.
I did quite a bit of research on the Dormancy Mineral Act and found that SDak has the same as ND. I think it said there are 14 states with such law.
The websites for SDak Oil & Gas are minimal at this stage of the game. When I found the website for the County Register of Deeds, it said they'd help with any questions, and listed a phone number and email addresses. I was pleasantly pleased to find how helpful they were, via emails. I'm guessing that will change as the demand increases when their county gets more and more oil activity.
This forum is fantastic for educating mineral owners, that are learning the ropes.
You need to go back through the DEED OF SALE for your ranch and see if the seller conveyed all of the mineral rights in the sale, generally stated as "appurtenances" and if he retained any or all of the minerals. It has to say so in the deed of sale.
Next just because you get 1/8th royalty, which is the standard and also a standard which all oil and gas companies will continue to keep their lease holders under, unless all of the leases are for some reason thrown out, you have to figure that your 1/8th is not really an 1/8th if you are in a unit or pool. Then you have to do a some math involving your royalty interest times the pecentage of your acres in the pool (This is really complicated and I personally think it was designed back in the days when oil companies bought the state supreme court judges their elections by giving them enough money to get elected.
I hope this helps...somewhat...but if you find the right law firm, a boutique firm that specializes in nothing but oil and gas, their hourly rate is nowhere near, what the "we cover everything" firms.
I agree with Eastern MT, what did the seller own when they conveyed it to you ? To know for sure you need to go to the original deed or patent and follow the chain of title to your purchase. I have heard that the state of Montana had taken mineral rights for unpaid taxes in the past and when you paid your taxes you only got half of your mineral rights back. If this is so there are going to be alot of surprised mineral owners that they only receive half of what they thought they were leasing for, which is already half of what they thought they were leasing for after taxes and the deductions that the operator will make unless you negotiate a lease that has no deduction except taxes that we all must pay.
