New member, shared topic with M_Barnes. I have/had 6 other royalty owners attached to my interests for ages. I recently signed new Division Orders with a new oil company that drilled many, many wells. It’s my initial land purchase, it’s my land, my oil, dang it! Could I have somehow dropped those other mineral rights owners so I could have full royalty ownership, or can I do that in the future somehow? Or am I just stuck with the status quo?
@ELW I answered your question in your other post. Here is a copy.
I cannot comment directly since I do not know all the facts. The operator does a Division Order Title Opinion to look up the title of all the mineral owners that have acreage within the drilling unit. Your 118 acres may not be all of the unit. It is could be larger depending upon the depth and drainage area of the wells. You would need to contact the Operator and get them to explain the splits with you. Some division orders list all of the owners. Some do not. For example, if the unit consists of 320 acres and you have 118 of that, then the other names on the list could be the owners in the rest of the unit and entitled to their share of the royalties just like you.
The lease royalty amount is also part of the equation. The operator can help you with the math.
The other item of note is that a lease usually lists the gross acres, not the net, so that confuses people sometimes. If grandpa had 118 acres, but left half of it to one child and the other half to the other child, then down the line, they and their heirs would all share in the royalties from the gross 118 acres. The title opinion traces all the ownership out and then assigns the proper amount to each owner for payment.
Not sure when you say “land” if you mean surface and minerals or just minerals. Depending upon the deed for the sale, some people buy the surface, but there is a restriction for half the mineral rights to go with the surface and half to go to the original owner which they might have passed down to their kids.
Many possible explanations. You would need to talk to the operator to get it explained fully.
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ELW, they own their rights that they either inherited or paid for. So, no, you can’t just get rid of them.
You can’t just drop them or kick them out of the property any more than you can assert that you have too many people living in your neighborhood or county, and why can’t I just kick them out of the neighborhood or county.
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