This happened to me. Chesapeake paid the land owner but we owned the mineral rights. That is recorded at the courthouse. They either wanted to cheat you, just forgot to pay us or were too lazy to look it up. We paid an attorney to get it right. It was worth it as there was leasing money for 80 acres at $1650 involved plus royalties. Get a lawyer. They will collect and get you your money, then deduct about 5 % for themselves. Worth it.
You can call me if you’d like. I can explain it to you. 909 9362266
In the Archive area. The Drop Down lists all available books to search, for example: Index to Wills, Will Book, Index to Grantor Deeds, Index to Grantee Deeds, Deed Book
All archive area is searched in Archives.
They aren’t in the new search area.
Select archive on left side of screen
Through the railroad commission.
Em cook. Thnx for the kind offer, as i get more into to this and know more, i probably will.
Yes, i have been in the archive section when looking for deeds and wills, but still not having alot of sucess. I’ll keep trying it
The surface owner won’t be automatically paid royalties. There has to be some document showing that the surface owner actually owns the minerals. Where you own some or all of the minerals, there will be a document showing that your ancestor either bought the minerals or kept them back when they sold the surface. The oil and gas company will have (most of the time) found that document when they did title work. If they didn’t, then the oil and gas company would think that the surface owner would be the mineral owner, and would be paying royalties to the surface owner.
The 10 year law that you’re thinking of is probably related to a law that allows the oil and gas company to do the title work, then file a lawsuit with the court that allows them to place an active lease on any unfound mineral owners. After 10 years, the mineral rights revert back to the surface owner. This is not an automatic process, though.
Hope that helps some.
Found this group after my wife received a letter from Antero Resources Corporation. The short of it is they indicate they are trying to qualify the heirs of my deceased father-in-law, indicating that he holds mineral title on 54 acres in Tyler County, WV. I’ve read through this thread and will follow the guidance previously offered. But would welcome any other insight. It seems our path so far tracks closely to Jearley’s path. My wife and I are located in San Diego County, CA, so it won’t be an easy thing to visit the Tyler County Deed office to get copies of the land deed records, land sell transaction, Oil and Deeds and conveyances, and Copies of the Will. Any other insight or referrals to those who could help would be appreciated!
You can get the copy of deeds, Wills, and Conveyances at the Tyler County County clerks office by ordering on line. Antero Oil and Gas is trying to get the leases on all Muddy Creek Surface and below ground Mineral Rights.
Thank you! I’ve visited the site and will also call the County Clerks office on Monday. Much appreciated!
The online search for Tyler County info is somewhat difficult to use for the archived items, but alot of things can be found. I have also found that the people in the Clerks office are very helpful. Good luck
Thanks Jearley. I saw that some of the recorded deeds and leases had a “viewable” link while most did not. As it turns out, while the letter we received from Antero mentioned the family held mineral title in 54 acres, when we called we found out our part of the family only owns a small, small fraction of that. It appears the royalties and signing bonus will cover a couple of movie nights out with dinner a couple of times a year. There goes the sugar plums that were dancing in our heads 
Hope yours turns out to be better than that for you…but enjoy whatever you find. Still looking into ours, but seems ours might turn out well. Take care
Ours turned out well we had special Mineral Right Heir protective provisions put in ours and Antero signed off on them.
Owner…i still have soo much to learn here. Can i ask how that works or what they were? Thanks
-
Protection Clause for all land and Mineral Rights Heirs,
-
No Warranty of Title Clause for all Land and Mineral Rights for all Heirs,
-
Special Warranty of Title Clause ,
-
Hold Harmless Clause for all the Land and Mineral Rights Heirs,
-
Removal of the Automatic Extended Indefinite Clause after the (5) year agreement for Oil and Gas,
-
Removal of Post Production Expenses and Cost for Land and Mineral Rights to all Heirs,
-
Antero, nor any of its Affiliates, or Investors, or Landsman Services cannot sell the Surface Land Rights, or below Land Surface Mineral Rights to any Second or Third Party that is not a Legal Heir.
-
Shut-In Clause of $250.00 per acre to each Heir per year,
-
Notification of sale Assignment Clause,
-
Formation Limit Marcellus Shale Only Clause,
-
Separation of Oil and Gas lease with separate leases ,
Having issues too with Antero for now. I signed a lease WELL over a year ago, got my sign-on bonus, and so far NOTHING! But just this week I got a letter from Antero wanting to buy me out??? I don’t get it. Mine ownership is ALSO in Tyler County…muddy creek.
Your buy is dependent on your lease clause for the buy out. Antero seeks a low buy price on all there leases. But you have a right to negotiate depending on how much mineral rights you are claiming. The only time Oil and Gas companies off a buy a year latter is due to the fact they have cut a deal with surface owner. You need to seriously need to do some investigation into this.
The surface has nothing to do with the minerals.
Under the agreements that Antero has with certain surface owners who are not related but own the surface land some have cut deals with Antero to have a percentage of the take out. The below ground Mineral Rights Heirs depending on how many acres and heirs there are is broken down. The surface rights are actually a key point in all this. If Antero is willing to pay a large amount for the surface rights then Antero already knows there perspective pool rate of Oil and Gas from the field in question. So rengotitatio0n would be advised to any Mineral Rights Heirs. I do from legal litigation that due to the problems with EQT, StatOil, and Independent Oil and Gas companies not living up to the terms of their leases that the State of West Virginia passed in 2018 HB 4268 Contenancy Law.
2 Likes
You may want to send a letter to Antero requesting that they make a full disclosure regarding all of the factors related to the value of your minerals. Since you have a OGL with Antero, they have a fiduciary relationship with you. You may want to contact an attorney in WV on this matter. Some times companies make an offer like this because the mineral ownership is so fractionated, purchasing will lower admin cost. Many times they do this because your minerals just got quite a bit more valuable for some reason.
Per your comment above James, thanks for that.