I know nothing about this industry, except that it makes or breaks people.
I have many questions
How do I find out how many acres are owned. Also , 2 of my relatives are deceased but on listed no known address. And for many years but the family didn’t know about this is it possible somebody was holding out.
Welcome to the forum:
Sounds like mineral leases. Don’t proceed until you learn about the process.
More important than the bonus are the terms and royalty percentage.
Beware of Delivering Lease Without Payment:
Failure of a company to pay a lease bonus is a theme that has been raised in this forum far to often. Below are a few discussions on the topic. It is always best to exchange a lease for a check at the time of the transaction. This may not always be possible because of distance. In such cases it is probably better to have an escrow company or attorney to hold the lease until the consideration is paid.
Sometimes companies file leases without payment of bonuses.
There have been cases were companies take leases but never file them. They return the leases later stating that they were never funded by the company. In the meantime, the mineral owner cannot sign with another company.
It is much easier to prevent the issue than to remedy it after the fact.
It means that someone wants to lease your acreage. (Unless it was a sales offer.) It should have a royalty percentage to go with it. I always ask what they are offering for the next royalty point. If they offer 3/16ths, then I ask for 1/5th, etc. The terms of the lease are the most important as they can hold you for decades. Read the Mineral Help above and ask lots of questions. The lease they offer you will most likely need negotiation to be more in your favor.
Appreciate your posts. I have a bunch of small producing and non-producing interests, some royalty interests. What is best (and least time consuming) way to monitor activity on these (and nearby) interests? Would love an APP to load in legal descriptions and just get a quarterly report. Does that exist…OR a service that does that? Also have a couple of 3 year leases that I completed and the companies just go away…how do I know if they ever did any meaningful exploration?
Make a list of the properties by state and county and then legal description. I make a column called “status”. I use Excel.
I have columns for description, well names, comments, lease date, exp date, royalty, and anything else I am interested in.
I have another spreadsheet with my favorite online sites. Then at least once a month, sometimes weekly if action is pending, I check the state online sites that are free and watch for activity and note it in my spreadsheet. I also subscribe to some free daily websites that have new permit information.
I have a third spreadsheet with production data. I list each company that pays me and have columns for the months payments.
There are subscription services out there for activity. They are expensive, but make it fast. I use Drilling Info. I have used Pangaea in the past. With Excel and a bit of time, you can do it yourself for free.