My brothers and I own mineral and royalty rights on approximately a total of 1000 acres in Limestone County. The acreage is a combination of a number of plots ranging from 10 acres to 160 acres. As near as I can discern from looking at maps of the location of the plots, the acreage is on various surveys north and northeast of the town of Mexia. There are two producing oil wells on one of the tracts which is around 50 acres. As far as we know there is no oil or gas production on the remaining 950 acres although our ownership in some of the tracts is very small. We have essentially paid no attention to the rights but recently we received an offer for the producing rights. That offer was about double of what we had received from previous offers to purchase them. I have a couple of questions that I would appreciate any input that any of you might have to them. My questions are:
1. Do any of you know of anything going on regarding exploration in the area north of Mexia that would cause a company to make an offer for producing rights?
2. At what level of rights ownership are companies required to contact an owner for leasing and/or royalty payment?
3. Do non-producing rights have any value and do people or companies buy them and how does one go about contacting those entities?
Many thanks in advance to those of you who reply to my posting and questions.
John: I can't help you, but keep in touch. I have a small mineral interest that needs a lot of proving (from my deceased father-in-law through my deceased mother-in-law through my deceased wife) and I don't know if it is worth the expense.
JimBrock
John: Call O'Brien Energy, (318) 865-8568, ask to speak with Ronny Martin, he's a landman who has done much work in Limestone County. David R.
Thanks
David G. Rickard said:
John: Call O'Brien Energy, (318) 865-8568, ask to speak with Ronny Martin, he's a landman who has done much work in Limestone County. David R.
Run, don't walk, to the courthouse (you can use the mail) and establish your rights on each plat. The mineral estate is superior to the surface estate in Texas, and should not be taken lightly, not that you are. The County Clerk's office should be your ally, should not allow your minerals to be sold out from under you. Abbot, we have him to thank for this. However, in Limestone County, you are on your own.
One "trick" if you will, is this. The alleged thief will reference your mineral property by describing it using a plat that was generated three, four, five sales, many plats, ago. The conveyance to you is simply not mentioned. The result? The next time a Land man from an oil company searches for who he or she is going to contact, who needed to be paid for a delay rental, they are not going to find you.
Yes, there does seem to be activity. Limestone County is one of the less transparent counties on all ownership, surface and mineral. Juan Acosta, J.Acosta, may have something. Hard to tell. From my own experience, I know the local title companies are not to be trusted. Given that truth is a defense to libel or slander, Bobby Reed, you worm, yours and mine have been doing business for what, at least 100 years? And you gave me a false title run. So I advise against using that lawyer and his title company. Guess I am not partial to being lied to, call me silly.