My father passed away last year and had royalty interests in several oil and gas wells with different companies. The heirs have all agreed to let my father’s sister, my aunt, have the royalty interests. Two of the companies have been easy to work with in completing this process.
Then there’s Greylock Energy who insists that what my father owns are the mineral rights and that mineral rights are considered the same as real estate/property in West Virginia. Thus, the heirs would need to deed the royalties/mineral rights to my aunt.
However, the Lincoln County courthouse assessor’s office says the only ticket they can find in my father’s name is a royalty ticket, not a mineral rights ticket.
Greylock gave me the API numbers of the wells which are useless to the courthouse which can’t use them to look up the mineral rights tickets. I did find the name of the person who owns the surface rights using the API number but haven’t been able to .
So I have no idea whose name the mineral rights are in or how to get them in my aunt’s name. We are at a total impasse and I do not know what to do at this point. Once I settle my father’s estate, his bank account will be closed and I can no longer deposit the checks from Greylock and write checks to my aunt for that amount. I can endorse them with my name and the word “executor” and forward them to my aunt. But for how long? Not forever.
Does anyone know how to look up mineral rights ownership without a name or address?
Does anyone know a good mineral rights attorney in West Virginia? I would prefer not to spend more money on this, but I am considering this option.
Thank you for any insight, knowledge, advice you can give me.