My mother-in-law owns 3 acres of the land listed below and she has been offered a sum for the mineral rights. Is this area a producing area and if so, she has not received any royalties, even though others in the family have. How can I check for her to see if she should be receiving royalties? the rights in questions is:
"All of the South half (S/2) of Section 39, Block 33, T-3-N, T & P Ry. Co. Survey, Howard County, Texas".
Any help would be appreciated as I am not sure she should be selling these rights.
Thanks
Mike Koorie
Mike, your mother's land is located right in the heart of a play that Occidental Petroleum ("Oxy") purchased from Three Rivers in 2014. Permits have been issued for three horizontal wells on the property, and according to DrillingInfo, two of the three wells have been spud. I've attached a map showing where the permits reside within the section.
My strong advice would be to not sell given that production appears imminent, if not already occurring. Did your mother by any chance sign an oil and gas lease? If not, it is possible that she owns a type of interest that does not have the executive right to sign oil and gas leases, such as a non-participating royalty interest. Though even if the latter is the case, she should still be contacted by Oxy to ratify the "pooled" unit since the horizontal wells travel within and outside of the tract that she owns an interest in.
If she is an unleased mineral owner that does have the executive right to lease, she is in a very good position because she can almost name her price for a lease given that development appears to already be occurring. If this is the case, I would be happy to send her property description around to some of the oil companies that I know are leasing in Howard County to see if they have an interest in leasing her minerals.
Feel free to send me a message on this forum with your contact information if there are any other questions that I can answer. I have access to Howard County property records and would be happy to look through them if you are wanting some clarity on what type of interest she owns.
