Hey everyone. We are new owners of a property in Rusk County that still has a shut in well (with equipment) and the state is planning on taking it at some point down the road. We received mineral rights with this property (first time ever owning minerals) and had some questions.
Seems like oil and gas activity in Rusk county was much higher at some point, but is declining recently. Is that still the case?
The well has been shut in for almost seven years, and curious what the process of a lease looks like. I absolutely will find myself a good minerals attorney, but will I receive a call from some operator who wants to go after our minerals? How does that work?
I was told our lease has good nat gas and oil, but it’s >10k feet down, so the operators abandoned it and went to West Texas in search of much easier spoils.
Also, just wanted to say hello, and start learning about this world I know nothing about. Our lease is the Jacob A lease in Reklaw.
Don’t find a Jacob A lease in the Railroad Commission’s records for Rusk County. Also checked Cherokee and Nacogdoches County since Reklaw is near those boundaries but nothing there either. If you’ll post your survey name and abstract number and, if you have it the name of the previous operator of that lease, maybe someone will have better luck finding it.
Below is RRC’s map of the Reklaw area. The only activity nearby appears to be some horizontal Pettit wells a couple of miles north that were drilled 10 years ago but are still reporting a little production, and a few vertical gas wells 3+ miles to the east that RRC says are orphan (abandoned) wells. Everything else are dry holes or very old plugged vertical wells.
Regarding future leasing, if the deed where you acquired your interest was recorded in the county deed records and it included your name and address then landmen will be able to contact you if interest develops in that area. If you want to keep tract of leasing activity in Rusk and adjoining counties here’s a link where you can sign up for free monthly Lease Alerts https://www.courthousedirect.com/ProductInfo/LeaseAlertInfo.aspx
Thanks Dusty. The survey is Elisha Moore survey and ours is one of the orphaned wells. The field name is " BIG SHORTY (PETTIT)" and the well number is 10845. We own the area that still has the pumpjack, separator, and the tanks, but the RRC is going to at some point, plug the well and take all of the equipment.
These are vertical wells, about 12,000 feet down… I’m told there is a good amount of sweet crude underneath us, as well as natural gas, but trying to figure out what is what. We are totally new to what we own. Thanks for doing some legwork on this for us!
Make sure your name and address are properly filed with any title information such as a probate or purchase with the recorder of deeds in the county courthouse. The landmen start there to find the mineral owners. The Mineral Help tab above is a useful place to start. There is a small booklet written by the founder of the National Association of Royalty owners that is called “Look Before you Lease”. Explains the general terminology. It is a bit out of date, so if someone comes calling. be sure to get a good oil and gas attorney to review any lease as they are rarely in the mineral owner’s favor and will need some specific edits.
