My grandmother received payments from her ORRI in a well in Canadian county many decades ago. As her heir, I’ve been approached about this interest by a drilling company. Apparantly they have found a lease that they claim has been in effect since that time due to a well that has been continuously operating over that period. I’ve asked them to give me a book and page number but I’m not getting anywhere.
While that’s certainly interesting and good news, it begs the question as to why I haven’t been getting payments from that producing well. Calls to the production company have revealed that they have a title opinion that the lease has terminated. They are unable or unwilling to share.
It seems some detective work is in order. I contacted the records office in El Reno and got a lot of good help from the county folks there but they weren’t able to locate the particular lease in question. I think it is time to involve a professional researcher to get to the bottom of this.
I’d like some advise as to whom should be hired to look into this matter, for what type of work product I should be asking and what I should expect to pay for the service.
The wife and I had a similar situation...when she inherited mineral rights from her Mom, we found old leases with the paperwork from the 1990's. we didn't know where to begin to search so the county recommended we hire a landman who are experts on leases and mineral rights..Our Landman was able to reseach the titles and deeds and found previous leases on file....he is now in the process of contacting several oil companies to see if there is any interest in our property...The key take away, is to hire an expert LANDMAN to help you
agree with Joseph. You will need a landman. If its Canadian, depending on the years all this happened, I may be able to help if anything is online. Feel free to reach out if you need it, I can do a quick search and see what I Find.
The first thing you need is the Township Range and section of the well. Ideally, ask for the "API Number" of the well. This information will allow you to lookup online, the state records for this well. The state records will show who the Purchaser of the oil has been. Contact the purchaser, they will be happy to help you resolve the issue.
Do you have any info on the location of the well? Township/range/section...or the api number, or the well’s name.....alternative I could check my data sources and search for your grandmother’s name if you would like....email me at [email protected] and reference this post...i’ll See what I can come up with. If I can find you something, great otherwise I can direct you to some people that could help you chain title.