My mom has received an offer to purchase her mineral rights in Canadian County Sections: 14 and 23. The offer is from Ferrell Oil Company. The offer is in the amount of $9,500 per net mineral acre provided that the subject minerals are entitled to 3/16th royalty if currently leased. it also states she needs to provide them with any This is an investment that my father, who is now deceased, made many years ago so we know very little about it. We do not even know how many mineral rights she owns. Any help to the following questions would be greatly appreciated:
How do we find out what mineral rights she owns?
How do we gain access to the title of her mineral acres?
How do we obtain the current revenue statements, check stubs, and division orders? (as per the contract, she is required to provide these after 5 days of acceptance of the contract, but we do not have any)
There is language in the contract that they can adjust the purchase price proportionately as a result of any uncured defects by the Seller.
are these contracts typically negotiable?
Is there a reputable company that assists the Sellers in these types of deals?
There are many Section 14 & 23’s in Canadian County. Please provide the township & range so you can get some help.
Don’t worry about Ferrell’s push to get things done. There are lots of buyers that will help you through the process if you decide that selling is what you want to do. Do yourself and your mother, to know what you own before you begin any negotiations.
You can probably count on offers you receive will try and take advantage of your Mother’s Mineral Ownership. Hopefully your Father purchase was filed(recorded) at the Canadian County Clerk’s office. The last 30 years or so records are available on-line via the internet. You can print your Deed directly from there. If your Father has died you may need to have a “quiet title” process to place the minerals in your Mother’s name and filed at the Clerk’s office. If the minerals are producing you will need to check the Okla CC to see if Producing. Also, if they couldn’t find where to send the Production checks-check the OKLA Unclaimed funds State database.
By the way I am not a lawyer and these thoughts are only a guess on my part…
By the way the people that have contacted you may have an idea of your Deed - ask for Book and Page if you discuss with them… However, don’t let them take advantage of your present lack of information – find out as much ask you can, before any discussions. And by the way since they are contacting you they probably have an idea that you may soon have an Oil Well… So, it very probably might be to your advantage to get the ownership of the Minerals in your Mother’s name – sign a good lease ( once the ownership is straightened out the lease people and landmen will find you )and wait for the checks to arrive…
Your thoughts were my thoughts exactly. I appreciate you taking your time to explain in details some specific items we can ask for in negotiations. We have found some people that we will be reaching out to asking for their assistance in the matter. Definitely worth digging into before agreeing to a random contract. One of the things that makes our scenario a little more difficult is that the investment was made more than 30 years ago so we will need to hire someone to dig through the docs at the county. We are in the process of learning more about what we own. Again, thank you for taking the time to provide me with some sound advice.
What township and range go with the 14 &23? There are many of them. If you share that, I can tell you if there is pending activity or if there are wells you need to get paid on.
You may be able to find the deed online depending upon how far back it was bought. You can also find out the leasing or pooling royalties back to about 1990.
You can look up the wells online and find out it they are still in production. You can find the operator and contact them or look on the state treasurer’s office
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The first offers are usually low just to see if someone will bite. Very important to find out what you have first. Find out if there will be future drilling. Much of Canadian county is very prolific and there may be pending horizontal wells that might make you not want to sell. You may make more money by not selling. Depends upon your priorities and time frame.
If you can go to the County Clerks office and look yourself. It’s easy and actually fun and interesting, and most County Clerks are very helpful – to get you going correctly in your search. There is an index for each section for each year. So, at worst you will only need to look at 20-40 pages - depending on how far back you need to go…
Thank you for your detailed response. The sections are in Township 14 South, Range 10. There are other offers that we have from different companies that have completely different townships and ranges. Our goal at this point is to figure out what we have. It appears that you are very knowledgeable on the subject, and represent different families in managing their mineral rights. Do you personally, or do you know of anyone that we can hire to track down exactly what mineral rights my mother has in Oklahoma? I will say that she does recall receiving notices stating that certain areas have been plugged and abandoned in years past, but it is also my understanding that drilling techniques have advanced and they are re-opening these sites with better abilities to reach previously unreachable reservoirs.
I am a firm believer in mineral owners getting informed and learning as much as they can before hiring professionals. Will save you a lot of money in fees.
Start by making a list of everything that you have offers from. I use excel myself. Sort them by state, then county, then township, then range, then section, then the aliquots (the extra descriptions like NW4 SW4, etc.)
You can look up her name for Canadian county here and see If you can find her.
If she saved any of her paperwork, gather them all up and start going through them. I am thinking that you are actually in 14N-10W. as Canadian does not have any South townships.
You can look up any wells on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission site. Test
Any production can be looked up at the OK tax site.Gross Production
There is quite a bit of new horizontal drilling under old shallow fields. If you get offers to buy, then that is a clue and an even better reason to get informed as you may not want to sell.
Ask tons of questions on the forum. Please separate any other locations into their own separate topics.
Why is your mom considering to sell? If she owns the rights outright, why not keep it? You’ll ALWAYS get offer letters or calls asking to sell your rights. BEWARE!
Go to the County the rights are in and do a search there for the title.
You obtain the DOs and statements by identifying your mother to the company, the company will have instructions for you to do that.
DON’T accept just any offer! Do your homework and do not settle.
Any Landman can help you assess the value of the acres owned, but for a fee, I do believe.
I was new to this as well and had to educate myself … the owner before me sold rights that were FAR more valuable than what was offered. Unfortunately, it was a done deal and nothing could be done about it. Buyers BANK on you not knowing a thing.
I hope this helps you.
If your minerals are in Sections 14 and 23 of 14 North 10W, there are some good wells there. Sounds like you live out of state and your dad acquired the minerals before 1992. If so, a trip to the courthouse in El Reno will likely be necessary. I live in the county, have minerals adjoining yours and can probably help you if you will private message me.