I received a letter wanting me to sign off on my mineral and royalty rights. Some of my relatives received the same letter.
Sections 18, 29 and 37, Block 27, PSL Survey, Winkler County, Texas
What is this and how do I know if their offer is fair? Is there anyway to look up this property to see the size of it? Does every relative have to sign and return it in order to receive their offer? Should I go with the US Mineral Exchange instead to try and auction it off for a better price?
They gave me until January 17th to accept the offer. I have not returned any of the paperwork as of yet. Now I am getting a call on my cell phone from them asking me to call them back. I would just like a more information before I contact them back being I have never heard of any of this before.
Offers to buy minerals go out by the ~ tens of thousands per day. 99% of them are deeply to the purchasers advantage, and many of them are simply teasers to attempt to get you to contact them.
As to what is “fair”, this is mostly a nebulous term as used in this context. The right question is, what is the current market value of this. In today’s market, the buying crowd is primarily attempting to purchase your minerals just ahead of future drilling. They have the data, you don’t.
You should know the legal description of the tract of land in which you own minerals, and know what percentage of the minerals you own. There are generally GIA mapping features on the websites of the oil regulatory bodies in all oil producing states.
Dates on which offers ‘end’ are generally meaningless - a simple technique used by marketers to invoke some sense of “you must act or lose out”. Tom foolery.
In the mineral buying industry, there are, many many sitting at desks smiling and dialing - telemarketers trying to get you to pick up the phone. No news there.
Generally, a mailed offer is usually not the best deal out there. Sometimes it may have a high price to entice you call back, but I would be weary since so many of those types of buyers will lower their price after looking at it closer. In your case, perhaps the more so because those three sections are very different and the value of each is not the same. I’d want to know the value they are allocating to each tract that you own.
Perhaps more importantly, though…are you currently being paid by Felix for any of the wells in Section 29? If you are not in-pay, it is worth investigating what and where your interests are in that Section and find out why you’re not being paid. If you are being paid, then all the better.
Not being paid on Block 27, Section 29. I was not even aware I had a share in a mineral/royalty interest until I received a letter wanting to purchase my share from Patch Energy.
Patch Energy also obviously put a lot of time and effort into finding the heirs of the original mineral/royalty interest owner (my grandmother). I would think they only would have done that if there was a decent amount of money to be made off of this.
How many acres? What’s the offer? What royalty are yours leased at? Would need to know the answers to these questions to know if it’s a reasonable offer. Hopefully some people can chime in and give their advice
My offer was $1000 for the whole package. As well as my two brothers. I believe my 4 uncles were offered $3000 each. My brothers and I are only part of this deal because our mother is deceased otherwise it would have went to her. So basically it sounds like they offered a total of $15,000 for all of us.
Unsure if there are any other interests out there besides us. As I said I am new to this game.
That is why I was curious if you were being paid. There are a number of Buyers who target "lost’ mineral owners. They’ll spend a little time determining who the likely heirs of those older owners are and make an offer for those interests. The offer may or may not be a good deal. However, whatever you decide to do, make sure that any deal does not include royalties currently being held in suspense by the oil company. A lot of these Buyers will want that money, which might make up the majority of the price offered. The best approach would be to get in-pay first, collect any accrued royalty, and then make a deal.
Lisa, Felix Energy has 4 producing oil/gas wells(API 495-33856, 857, 858 and 495-33774) in Section 29.
XTO Energy has 2 producing wells(API 495-30144 and 495-32795) in Section 18. I see no producing wells in Section 37.
GIS Map of Winkler County Section 18, 29, and 37/Block 27 and surrounding area:
(RRC Org No 265322)
FELIX ENERGY HOLDINGS II, LLC
FELIX ENERGY
1530 16TH ST SUITE 500
DENVER CO 80202
Phone No: (720) 974-2061
Emergency: (720) 974-2090
(RRC Org No 945936)
XTO ENERGY INC.
ATT LAND MANAGER-LOC.115
22777 SPRINGWOODS VILLAGE PKWY
SPRING TX 77389
Phone No: (832) 624-4558
Emergency: (832) 625-4475
I spoke with someone from Patch Energy yesterday. He stated that we don’t own the title but that it is in receivership. Hundreds of other shareholders. I think I may hold off for a bit and see what else I am offered.
I was able to obtain the information below on my own.
The receivership makes the job of getting paid significantly harder. It will also significantly decrease the marketability of your interest until it is out of the receivership. What likely happened was that an old relative owned these minerals. He/she died, likely out of state, and decades passed without much oil and gas activity, so it was all probably forgotten by various family members. Now, when the oil company is combing through the deed records to find who owns the minerals, the trail stops at the old relative. They “should” have made a diligent search, but what is diligent may be a little subjective. After all, Patch found you…why couldn’t they?
At any rate, if their search was not fruitful, they can petition a court to set up a receivership. The receiver acts on behalf of the missing owners until they are found. Royalties are paid to the receiver (or might just be suspended altogether), who holds them until the missing owners are found.
If the interest was not in receivership, but just being held in suspense, getting put in pay would be a chore, but not terribly difficult. You would need to establish how you are entitled to the interest as heir or beneficiary of whoever in the family once owned them. This would mean obtaining Affidavits of Heirship for family members who died without a Will, or obtaining probate proceedings for family who died with a Will that was probated.
For something in receivership, the process is more difficult. You will need all the same information, but you will also have to petition the court to have your claim recognized and out of receivership. Which also means that you might need to hire a lawyer. The million (or hundred) dollar question is…are your minerals worth more than what it will cost to do all this? Impossible to know unless you already have an idea what you own. I suppose you do have Patch’s offer as a starting point, but who knows how correct their math is, or if the number offered is indicative of what you’re currently owed, From what you have described, it sounds like it would be best for all your family to get together on this though, since your portion might be much smaller than the uncles, and alone, perhaps not worth the legal cost. If y’all decide you want legal help, there are sponsors on this forum who can help, and I recommend one of the attorneys, based in Austin. Sharp guy. There are also many other qualified lawyers in Texas who could help with the receivership, and most will show up with some Google searching.
The oil company probably made a decent effort…at least enough to survive scrutiny by the judge. They likely searched a fair amount in Texas, but if somebody dies out of state decades ago, it can be significantly harder to piece it all together. I think in Reeves County, there were similar issues where, 50+ years ago, little 5-10 acre tracts were subdivided in a Section and then sold to people in Chicago and surrounding areas. Back then, a lot of these folks did not have a will when they died. It just passed to spouses/children and they were fine with that. Add to the complexity that in a lot of old title, people did not even use their first names, but went by initials. So, finding a “J.R. Thompson” in Chicago, IL makes the task much harder. Of course, that’s just an example of how it can be tough, and it seems like the “easier” cases do get put into receivership a bit prematurely sometimes.
But to your point, yes, groups like Patch do tend to get further. They specialize in these sorts of things, and I’m guessing their Return on Investment is much greater than the oil company’s with the wells they’re drilling out there. So, they’re more motivated to search harder. The oil company will do just enough to survive judicial scrutiny and get their lease. I can imagine it is very frustrating to be on your end of things, though, and get put into a position of having to spend time/money to get your money. Hopefully the money owed outweighs that cost.
I’m wondering if I should just take the $1000 and be done with this or wait to see if I receive any other offers or can squeeze a bit more out of Patch.
Don’t forget, this is a public forum, and as popular as it is, it’s unlikely that this conversation is not being read by Patch - so maybe they’ll “hear” you.
My family received an offer from Patch for rights in Block 27 Sections 19 and 37 (as well as areas in other counties). Apparently Felix has 4 wells on section19. “Rusty” on this forum suggested 1M barrels have been taken from these wells?? The four of us decided to obtain the wills from ancestors to prove ownership. Required 2 months to obtain and file with Winkler Probate. Now working with lawyer to release funds in receivership. So Patch offer was made 11/11 and just last week our lawyer met with Winkler Probate Court Clerk, the Judge who is the receiver, Felix lawyer and Felix Land Manager. So after 3 months we still do not know the value of our share but soon will. Hope it is higher then effort and expense spent…we’ll see. But we decided to determine value before signing over our rights.
