We recently received several mailings from a law firm in Oklahoma City with an OCC notice that my wife’s mother had some interest in mineral rights in Canadian County. The mailing was addressed to my wife’s mother who is deceased but with our mailing address. It’s the first we’ve heard of this but the rights were apparently passed down to her mother and siblings from her Grandfather. We contacted the land company and they advised us to file a “Proof of Heirship” with the county which we have done. They also asked that we send them a copy of the recorded documents which we will do as soon as we get them back from the county clerk. What else do we need to do to make sure we preserver her rights? This is cause number 20220093 at the Commission. There are also a number of companion causes as well.
Welcome to the forum. You should probably also check the OK Treasurer unclaimed funds to see if there are any royalties being held there. Search under the grandfather, mother and siblings’ names to see what might be there. If any of the relatives lived in another state, they need to search that state as well.
You can also hunt on www.okcountyrecords.com and see if any of the names pop up. There may be other minerals besides these.
If you have questions about the cases, ask. Pay particular attention if one of them says POOLING. You only have 20 days in which to select a bonus/royalty pair option once the order comes out. Many of us pick the highest royalty/lowest bonus as the higher royalty usually pays out better over the years than the one time bonus.
You need to check the following link. This will likely have information about the funds associated with your mother-in-law’s funds. If those funds exceed $10,000, then a probate will be required to obtain them from the Oklahoma treasurer. For sums below that amount a probate is probably not needed. But you will need to jump through some hoops to receive money from the treasurer. If the royalties are significant, then the company might also require a probate.
This post is not legal, investment or tax advice, it is for discussion purposes only. Reading or responding to this post does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Thanks for the welcome, glad to have found this forum, lot’s of good information here. Haven’t checked the OK Treasure yet but did the OK County Records site and didn’t find anything there,
I’m trying to understand the process and all the filings with the OCC on this Section 8 Township 12N Range 7W since there’s so many of them. What it looks like to a rookie is that Nosley Scoop first filed to allow horizontal drilling and spacing in this section on 12/7/21 and then on 12/10/21 filed a pooling application. It looks like the drilling and spacing was approved and an order issued but best I can tell the pooling order has not been issued yet. Wanted to confirm that’s what we’re waiting on to start the clock on the 20 days and that’s when we would see the bonus/royalty options?
The latest paperwork we’ve received is a set of interim orders “allowing four horizontal unit wells” to be drilled. Is that the last step before they would actually start drilling?
Still amazed that the land company found us in the first place, no one in the family was aware of this before.
The normal order of cases is to set the spacing acreage for the reservoir, then approve the type of well and how many, then pooling and later one might have increased density or any exceptions to production rules for allowables. The pooling is the one you need to watch for. The date of the order starts the 20 day clock. Be sure and send your response by certified mail return receipt so that you can prove you sent it and what day. Include your name, address, description of acres, case number, pooling order number and the selection that you pick. Also include a W-9 so that they will pay you the bonus. I try to send mine in as fast as possible to the address that will be given in the order. Many folks also send a copy to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission with attention to the Pooling Order number.
Thanks all for the info, we’re learning on the fly here. On the pooling, we never received an offer to purchase our rights but my wife’s aunt did. They offered a couple of options, the one with the highest percentage to us (1/5) had a $1,000 per mineral acre bonus. After reading some of the topics here it seems it would be better to take a lower bonus and a higher percentage. First question is are those the amounts we would expect in the pooling order and then second question is since the pooling order has been applied for but has not been issued do you take an offer to Nosley Scoop or somehow to the commission? Can you get out of the pool before the order is issued I guess is the question.
A bit confused by your comment about purchasing in the same sentence as pooling. Purchase offers tend to be from mineral buyers (which may or may not represent the operating company). Different than pooling which comes from the operator. You probably meant a leasing option. You have several pathways. You may lease with a leasing agent before the pooling order comes out or you may accept the pooling and pick the option that you prefer. (If your name and address are filed in the county courthouse with a description of your acreage, the leasing agents can find you.) Leasing covers all depths unless you have a depth clause and is for typically a three year primary term. Pooling is for a particular defined reservoir(s) and is a much shorter time frame (typically six months, year or 18 months). There are pros and cons to both. If you have never leased before, suggest that you get an oil and gas attorney to review the draft lease because they are generally not in the mineral owner’s favor and require some negotiation. You may not have the time to do that if the pooling is in a short time frame. You must answer the pooling in the 20 days or you will be assigned the lowest royalty. If you have had no correspondence from the companies involved, then contact the attorney listed on the OCC paperwork and let them know you exist and what your relationship to the acreage is, when you inherited, etc. Do this quickly!
Yes, my mistake, I meant a leasing option not purchase. Actually it looks like my wife’s aunt has had both. An offer to purchase her rights from a company called Antelope Oil and then the leasing option which came from Nosley Scoop and Revolution Operating Company which appear to be the operators. Thanks for clarifying all this, I think we know the way forward for now. We’ll be contacting the attorney on the OCC filings today. Thanks again.
202102822 Order 724798 Your available options are listed in section 7 on the third page. $1500 1/8th, $1250 3/16ths , $1000 1/5th. Many of us would take the 1/5th option. Revolution Operating Company will be the operator. Section 9.1 lists where you need to send your certified letter. State your name, address, description of acres, Case number, Pooling Order and the selection that you choose. Send to Revolution at the address shown on the order. Also send a W-9. Many people also send a copy by certified letter to the OK Corporation Commission as a backup.
Your eventual division order decimal will be calculated using the following equation: net acres/actual spacing acres x royalty x % perforations in your section. Looks like there will be three increased density wells plus the first well. Well surface locations will be in section 17. The permits are already filed. Battle Cry 1207 17-08 1MH, 2MH, 3MH, 4MH.
At this point, you just pick which bonus royalty pair that you want. Given that there are four horizontal wells planned, I would pick the 1/5th option. They will calculate how much bonus you will received based upon your net acres.
If you have NOT probated your mothers will, THAT is the instrument that give your family her mineral rights unless she gave it to someone else?
But that is what we did for our mineral rights in New Mexico. First got my grandmothers will probated and then my fathers will probated. THEN took both probated wills and filed that in New Mexico where we have mineral rights (also have them in OK and KS, but have not filed in those states yet - eventually we will).
BUT until you do that, the state that the mineral rights are in will not recognize your claim until you file a probated will WITH the state. If you live in OK, it is a lot easier that what we had to do, mainly because we live in Texas, where we first filed for probating both wills. THEN filed them in New Mexico. Cost was approximately $500 per will probated per state. As we probated two wills in two state, that cost was approximately $2k…
And we are STILL working through a quiet title suit in our instance. EVENTUALLY we will be done with this part. NOT FINISHED as we have a lot of holdings in three states. We have been working on the New Mexico mineral rights for nine years.
But on my fathers side they were a large family - my great grandparents had seven children. My grandfather had two children. So loads of legal paperwork to find and go through. The wife and I are both retired and have dove into this for the past nine years.
ONCE COMPLETED, I will post on the site to write up a mini review of what we went through, approximate costs and what it has meant to us.
GOOD LUCK. FIND A GOOD ATTORNEY, because you will need one at some point.
Oh my, doesn’t sound like you’re retired, sounds like you’re still working pretty hard to me. In our case it’s my wife’s mother who died several years ago. Her will was probated but in Texas not Oklahoma. We were not aware of any holdings in Oklahoma until we received a notice from the OCC about pooling. Apparently her father, my wife’s grandfather, held onto some mineral rights when we assume he sold property in Canadian County. We’re not sure of any of this since we haven’t seen any of the deeds or other documents yet. We’ve talked to the land man about this and they advised to file a “Affidavit of Death and Heirship” with the county so we did that. We’re hoping that will be enough but if not we’ll have to go the probate route and hope there’s no title issues found. We’re also in Texas so we really don’t want to do that until if/when we see the economics of all this.
Our issue now is to file our response to the pooling order within the 20 day time limit. We’ll go with the $1000 1/5 option I’m sure. We didn’t get the Proof of Death and Heirship filed before the pooling order came out but assume we file our response with the operator in my wife’s name and not her mothers. She has a sister so we’re going to try and get her up to speed on this as well before the 20 days run out.
Good luck on your quest, hope it doesn’t take another nine years!
It does and will do. Your other suggestion to send a copy of the pooling selection documents to the commission. Who do we send that to at the Commission?
