Hello, my husband was sent a letter offering him money for his mineral rights on Section 27 Block B Upton County Tx. Are there any wells currently producing there? How do we know what it’s really worth? Thank you for your help!
Jsfearn, Pioneer Natural Resources has several horizontal wells crossing and into Section 27…not the best oil/gas wells as far as production but they are producing.
GIS(Geographic Information System) map of Upton County Section 27/Block B/A-24:
CLICK ON MAP TO ENLARGE
Thank you for the information! Who do we talk to, to see if we’re owed anything? And if we are, what would have happened to the royalties, or lease money or whatever, for all these years? His grandmother died in the 80’s. Should we speak to a certain kind of lawyer? What do you recommend our next steps should be?
Also, I need to explain better. We got a letter in the mail from Forest Lake Minerals, telling us the land had been sold in a tax foreclosure sale, but they think the mineral rights should have stayed with the family. They want to either buy them out right or pay a sum of money for half interest. It doesn’t make sense to me that they would offer that much money because “maybe” the rights should have stayed with us, unless they knew for sure we were owed lots of money all these years. Everyone wants to take the money and run, but I feel like it’s a least worth checking into. Does it take years to determine that the mineral rights should have stayed with us? Or is that something easily checked? Which brings me to my reply from above, how do we get whatever would be owed to us all these years if they’ve been paying out to someone else? Thank you for all the help!
I will suggest that U get in touch with an oil/gas attorney and present this to him/her…this could amount to a considerable amount of money for now and for future production.
I suggest U get in touch with Wade Caldwell/Oil.Gas Attorney/San Antonio, Texas
https://www.ceflegalsa.com/
Good Luck.
You may be dealing with two issues. If the minerals were separated from the surface (retained) at an earlier sale, then a tax foreclosure on the surface interest would not affect the mineral estate retained. If the foreclosure sale involved unpaid taxes on mineral interests, and if production has ceased, then the mineral interest reverts back to the owner of the separated mineral interest. So, more facts need to be determined.
Here is a Texas Ct of Appeals case holding that reversionary mineral Interests are not foreclosed by a delinquent tax sale.
In Ridgefield Permian, LLC v. Diamondback E & P LLC, the court of appeals expressly rejected the argument that a tax lien also foreclosed reversionary mineral interests. “In summary, the possibility of reverter could not have been foreclosed upon because it was a non-taxable interest, meaning there were no delinquent taxes on which a lien could attach.” The court of appeals found that “because a possibility of reverter is a non-taxable interest, there could not have been delinquent taxes on that interest.” Thus, the tax judgment of 1999 could only have foreclosed the royalty interest under the then-existing lease.
Facts - In 1999, Reeves County foreclosed several hundred property interests due to delinquent taxes. A lawsuit was filed between a successor to the tax-sale purchaser & the successor of the tax debtor (the lessor in the underlying oil and gas lease). The tax-sale purchaser’s successor argued that the tax foreclosure included both the then-existing royalty interest and the possibility of reverter, i.e. the lessor’s reversionary interest in the oil and gas lease. The tax debtor’s successor argued that the tax sale did not foreclose the reversionary interests, meaning the chain of title that linked through the reversionary interest was superior to the chain of title derived from the tax sale.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 90 days. New replies are no longer allowed.