Advice for rebuilding trust estate records

General Mineral Rights Discussion
1

Hello All,

This is my first post, and though I will try to be brief, I'm going to try to provide as complete a picture of my situation as possible.Also, I would like to clarify that I have been through almost all of the posts in General Discussion, I've read all of the Blog postings, and I have been through dozens of informational websites.

The reason I am posting is not so much for resource information (unless it is a review of one or another resource), but instead help with strategy and tips for optimizing my efforts.

So, I will begin with an abridged history. My Grandfather (GP) worked an Oil & Gas Lawyer from roughly the mid-40's to the late-80's, mostly clearing up interests for Leasing and Developing Companies of various ilk. After my Grandfather passed on, my Grandmother (GM) began to work doing Forensic Genealogy for Oil & Gas Companies, Land-men, etc., and in the process cleared interests as well. Back in the early 90's they setup a Trust before my Grandfather passed away, and transferred all of the interests they had acquired up to that point into it. With ole GP's passing, my GM - as sole trustee - added further interests into the trust.

Then my GM passed back in '04, and the trust has been 'left to it's own devices' in a sense. My mother, though having a little interest with clearing interests, did not have the knowledgeably to manage the mineral interests. So, when a lease comes in, she signs it and sends it back, and the same with Division orders. A year and a half ago, she was out in Karnes county, and on a whim did a brief check for whether the transfer of deed to the trust was recorded, and also checked to see if there were any unrecorded interests under ole GP or GM's name. Low and behold, she found a few unrecorded assignments, recorded them, and within a few weeks was contacted concerning production on the property. She signed the leases that came in and then the division orders, and now gets a pittance on the current production. But it adds to our total monthly revenue, and "every little bit counts"according to her.

I will skip some details that are more or less of importance, but can be omitted for the sake of this post.

So, I decided that if a random stop in Karnes Co. could turn up something (without even performing a complete search for interests), then how much don't we know about. Well, it turns out, alot. In fact, nearly but not quite everything. Several years ago a very large - one could say majority - portion of our mineral records were "lost" in a business deal gone wrong. Among what was lost was almost all of our Assignments, Deeds, Conveyances, and most Leases and Division Orders prior to 2006/7.

So I have set out to try to completely rebuild all of our Trust estate's records. Keep in mind, before I began to do this a few months ago, I knew literally nothing about Oil & Gas Mineral rights or royalty interests, the laws that they're based upon, the common, legal, or dubious practices of those involved in the Oil & Gas Enterprise, etc. Truth be told, I still don't know all that much, and I have been studying my buns off trying to learn this stuff :)

Now I ask myself: 1. Where do I start?

I decided that it would be best to start at the beginning. Tracking down all of the Assignments, Deeds, Conveyances, etc. recorded under GP, GM, or the Trust's name in every available county, online. Using Wade Caldwell's Internet Resources for Mineral Owners Blog post on this site, I found TexasFile for locating County Property records, and began downloading Assignments, Deeds, etc. Then I found Tyler Technologies, and have even gone through the Counties that have their records online.

All of this downloaded information was then taken and lists of Original Grantors, Original Grantor Heirs, Land Descriptions, and Interest Descriptions currently fill up several college ruled notebooks (and I have done the same thing with all of the Division Orders and Leases that we do have). The problem is that there are counties that don't have online records, and the ones that do don't always have records that go back as far as my grandfather was doing business. As such, I surmise that there are still more records to be found. On top of that, this is primarily for Texas - since I live in Texas - but we have interests in some other states as well.

As it should be obvious to anyone who has made it this far, this is a very complicated situation, and I am confronted with a large amount of work that I am teaching myself as I go along (Using RRC Search Engine, Learning D\O & Lease terminology, Using GIS and GLO mapping systems to locate wells and local production, etc.). Not to mention trying to maneuver through the jungle of insanity that makes up Operators, Leasers, Lawyers, Land-men, Consultants, Acquisition Firms, and on, and on.

I'm hoping to get some feedback about how I can progress from here.

Is it worthwhile to invest in one of the online mineral management applications (like MineralFile or LandBoss) to organize interests, property descriptions, production and revenue information etc.?

Is it worthwhile to approach a Consultant that specializes in Mineral Management to assist with organizing everything and for locating the rest of the records which aren't online, or is it better to just contact and travel to the courthouses individually on my own?

What is the best way to get copies of All of the current Division Orders signed for which we receive Revenue? Is there some way that we might have signed Division Orders that have not produced Revenue, and how would we get copies of these? Is there any was to get copies of All of the previous Division Orders that have ever been signed by GP, GM, or the Trust?

What about Leases? What resources are there to locate All Current or Past (or potentially both) Leases that have been signed by GP, GM, or the Trust? I found some lease information in County Records, but they do not all seem to be recorded with the county because I have two Leases with Wells on them that we get Revenue from, but there are no records of the Lease with the county.

I could go on, but I will stop here. I apologize for the length of the post, and please be understanding that it has taken me a few days to refine my current inquiries and concerns to this condensed form, so any insight with the situation in general or with my specific questions are going to be Greatly Appreciated!!

Thank you,

Mathew

2

Hello,

I sympathize with your situation. It sounds alot like what I have been doing the past 5 years. Luckily though I had partial files and live fairly close to the counties where we "know" we have minerals.

First, a vent on a pet peeve of mine, the online courthouse files that your can "run title back to patent". You can run them back to patent if you already have run the title and have all of the volume and page numbers you need. Most of the services I have tried have an electronic index you can search back to the point in time that they have it on the computer at the courthouse. Mid 1990's if you are lucky, more likely mid 2000's. So one answer to your question is that there could be a multitude of documents from where their index stops back to when your grandparents started doing business in the 1930's/1940's. The only way to access this is by going to the courthouse.

I know some courthouses I worked you could call them and pay them X $/10 years searched for names. However if it is in a very active area I am guessing they no longer offer this service as it is not very cost effective for the county clerks, but you might call them before going out and give it a shot. Sometimes they will refer you to "a researcher" friend that you will have to pay money but depending on what they charge and what your time is worth that might be an option.

Bottom line is that courthouse visits will probably be inevitable.

As far as online services I use DrillingInfo to set up alerts for leasing or permits which might affect my Trusts minerals. You can set it county wide or by Abstract/Survey or just draw a box somewhere and it will send you an email with any new permits, leases, completions, pluggings, etc. within a few miles radius. Be warned it is pricy for your average mineral owner but for someone who has interest in counties all over Texas and with the current activity I could not live without it. The other benefit is that it is so much easier to use than the RRC "website". They also have a search feature to search the Tax Appraisals for producing wells which is very nice. Otherwise you have to go out to each Tax Appraisals website (which of course all behave differently).

Anyway, good luck with your search. As a side benefit to finding the minerals I am sure you have realized what a ton of history you are learning about your family and the oil business.

Thanks,

Lance

3

Hi, Mathew -

What you need is a Landman, but we can be quite expensive and someone in your family needs to understand all this paperwork and know how to control all of it anyway, so I'd suggest you stay on the path you are already on.

Welcome the wonder world of Land Title Research! You are destined for greatness in County Courthouses and Title Abstract Plants all over the State of Texas! In a matter of a few short months, you will be able to call yourself a "Professional Landman". Either that or you will have suffered a psychotic breakdown.

First, I have to ask: What sort of a failed business opportunity caused your so many of your records to be lost? Certainly whoever ended up in possession of them would have returned them.

Lance is correct about the capability of DrillingInfo. I've used it for years and highly recommend it.

Not only can you review Drilling and Production Historical information for every well drilled in the State (well, except for the really, really old ones - those you have to go to the RRC in Austin to research), they recently added a search engine that will allow you to identify any producing mineral interest owner found in any given counties' mineral tax rolls (Texas only).

They also recently acquired or acquired access to a set of online courthouse records from County Scans.

As you and Lance both pointed out, however, very few of the online services or any combination of them is going to cover all of the records you will need to review. And none of them cover County or District Court Records if you are going to need to review those.

Where to start? I find it is best to first go to the source of the greatest concentration(s) of information and documentation that I am looking for. And, fortunately for you, a lot of this work has already been done.

I suggest you contact the Division Order Departments of each of the companies you presently receive income from and request a copy of your original Royalty Division Order and any paperwork they received regarding subsequent Transfers of the interest (such as from GP to GM and then into the Trust). Contact information for the Division Order Departments should be available in the monthly statements they send with the checks. If not, hit the companies' websites.

The people with the Division Order Department can provide you contact information for their Land Department, possibly even the specific Landman responsible for the area where your interests are located. That Landman or someone else in the Land Department should be able to provide you with copies of your Leases and any Amendments or Extensions to them. Maybe even maps of the properties, which are always helpful.

They may even be willing to provide you with copies of their Title Run Sheet and any Supplements to it covering the lands your interests are in, which should include a history of your interests from Sovereignty through the Certification Date of their Division Order Title Opinion (any changes in your chain of title after that you would have received from the Division Order Department).

Due to liability issues, they might not be able to provide you with a copy of their Division Order Title Opinions for your properties, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Tell them that you are trying to reconstruct lost records. They'll understand that.

It may take them a little time to locate your records (they may have to order files from storage and that sort of thing), but I'm sure they will be happy to provide you with them. After all, it's your oil and gas they're producing, now isn't it? And companies don't want unhappy Mineral Owners, now do they?

Remember to also ask them about any monies being held in Suspense under any of the three names. When you transfer interests or change an address, unless you get all of their required paperwork just right they just throw the account in Suspense. [I am presently helping a family in Mississippi recover something in the neighborhood of $75,000.00 from an account that was thrown into suspense over 12 years ago from an improperly prepared Name and Address Change Request.]

You should also take a look at the online Unclaimed Properties websites for each of the States you suspect you have interests in. Royalties that are left in Suspense over a certain amount of time are frequently turned over to the State. Google the term "Unclaimed Properties" with each of the the States' names and you should find the websites. Be careful, these websites can become addictive.

Oh, and before I forget to mention it, you need to review some of the leases that were negotiated by your Grandfather and see if he added any additional provisions beyond what the printed form had. Frequently people do and you and your Mother both need to become more knowledgeable about how to protect your interests. If you need some suggestions as to additional provisions to consider, just let me know.

At the very least, add the following provision to all of your leases for now on:

"Lessee shall provide Lessor with a copy of any abstract, title run sheet and title opinion covering any of the Leased Premises, if same is generated or obtained by Lessee."

Accept my invitation to become A Friend on The Forum and we can talk in private if you want.

Hope this helps -

Charles

Charles Emery Tooke III

Certified Professional Landman

Fort Worth, Texas

4

Matthew,

I understand your situation.

You have already gotten some good ideas above. However, I am not sure if I saw whether you have created any indexes, which is where I suggest starting. An index of mineal properties, and an index of producers is very helpful. I update mine every time I get a new piece of information, whether a tax statement, deed, division order, etc. Also start calendaring the expiration date of leases, so you can track what acreage is open.

The main advantage of DrillingInfo. com is, in my opinion, the email alerts you can set up anytime there is an event of interest on or near your properties. For example, if i get an email showing a completion report has been filed, I tickle the 120 days to start bugging the producer for a division order. Many try to drag it out and hold onto the money.

If you or a cpa are preparing financial statements, you may want to look into Oildex. The setup fee is about $500 and the monthly fee is about $53, but they give you all your data electronically so you don’t have to manually input checkstubs. The handle data for over 40 companies.

On financials, I suggest organizing it by lease or by well, instead of by producer. Especially with mature fields, operators sell production or split the oil and gas payors so often, it is really hard to track by producer. It also lets you know when a well has stopped paying, as we have had several situations where a producer stopped paying because of title disputes, sold production, etc.


I assume you have done a thorough unclaimed property search. Very important.

Finally, keep at it and share the information with people who will eventually be taking this over from you and train them. It is amazing how much information dies because other relatives do not know where to look if something happens to you.
5

Thank both of you for the information.

You both confirmed one thing. Even though I was hoping to find a way to reduce, or maybe even eliminate, from my budget, that probably isn't an option. I've been vaguely aware of the fact that I am going to have to put together a budget for travel expenses to get out to all the courthouses in person, but I've actually both compiled a list of all County Clerks for the state of Texas, I've called a few of them and struck up a few short conversations, which makes me all the more confident that I can get copies from most counties, saving me the travel expense, but adding a budget expense for getting copies shipped.

I am working from an almost non-existent budget.

I was also worried that DrillingInfo (DI) was going to get brought up since I mentioned software. Unfortunately, I don't currently have the financial resources to get a member ship. I've spoken to the customer relations reps for DrillingInfo, MineralFile (MF), and MineralBoss(MB). They are all willing to charge monthly fees on a sliding scale, but DI and MB base their scale on revenue of the resources (in my case anyway), and I'm not the sole trustee, so I don't actually get the funds to budget with.

Now, MF is will to work with my current income inn terms of deciding the scale, but I'm not sure if their system is worth it. Does anyone know if their platform is sufficient if I am willing to go out and learn to use some of the public resources to supplement what Drilling Info provides?

Thnx, for the Friend request Charles, I approved it, and I'll send you a PM about the failed business deal if your interested, because I'm not trying to air dirty laundry in public. However, if you are interested I wouldn't mind your feed back on the situation. Actually, I was not involved in the transaction, and only have limited records from it, but I have a ton of questions.

Mathew

6

Hello Wade,

Firstly, Your Blog post "INTERNET RESOURCES FOR MINERAL OWNERS" has been of infinite assistance. Thanks.

I have been indexing everything on paper (about 10 notebooks worth), and have even tried to teach myself how to create a Microsoft Access Database to more completely index the resources and connect Assignments all the way through to Payout for producing royalties, and to have complete profiles with local activity, maps, etc. for those interests that are not producing.

The fact is that building this kind of Database in Access is ridiculously time consuming, and that doesn't even include if I try to start integrating the Database with Online Resources directly.

I guess that's why I was hoping to find out if either MineralBoss or MineralFile are professional quality Indexing Applications. It seems that Drilling Info is the most recommended, and unfortunately, I have already spoken with them, and their monthly fee is outside my budget.

I did in fact do an Unclaimed property search in TX, OK, LA, NM, and AR back in July, and yes found a nice little bit of kibble (which I mi madre sequestered because I hadn't yet make her sign a contract, I know better now). We also found 2 interests in OK, and 1 in NM we were previously aware of, and the assignments have even more property included in them that it most likely unrecorded :/


Wade Caldwell said:

Matthew,

I understand your situation.

You have already gotten some good ideas above. However, I am not sure if I saw whether you have created any indexes, which is where I suggest starting. An index of mineal properties, and an index of producers is very helpful. I update mine every time I get a new piece of information, whether a tax statement, deed, division order, etc. Also start calendaring the expiration date of leases, so you can track what acreage is open.

The main advantage of DrillingInfo. com is, in my opinion, the email alerts you can set up anytime there is an event of interest on or near your properties. For example, if i get an email showing a completion report has been filed, I tickle the 120 days to start bugging the producer for a division order. Many try to drag it out and hold onto the money.

If you or a cpa are preparing financial statements, you may want to look into Oildex. The setup fee is about $500 and the monthly fee is about $53, but they give you all your data electronically so you don't have to manually input checkstubs. The handle data for over 40 companies.

On financials, I suggest organizing it by lease or by well, instead of by producer. Especially with mature fields, operators sell production or split the oil and gas payors so often, it is really hard to track by producer. It also lets you know when a well has stopped paying, as we have had several situations where a producer stopped paying because of title disputes, sold production, etc.



I assume you have done a thorough unclaimed property search. Very important.

Finally, keep at it and share the information with people who will eventually be taking this over from you and train them. It is amazing how much information dies because other relatives do not know where to look if something happens to you.
7



Mathew Brandon Love-Waraksa said:

Hello Wade,

Firstly, Your Blog post "INTERNET RESOURCES FOR MINERAL OWNERS" has been of infinite assistance. Thanks.

I have been indexing everything on paper (about 10 notebooks worth), and have even tried to teach myself how to create a Microsoft Access Database to more completely index the resources and connect Assignments all the way through to Payout for producing royalties, and to have complete profiles with local activity, maps, etc. for those interests that are not producing.

The fact is that building this kind of Database in Access is ridiculously time consuming, and that doesn't even include if I try to start integrating the Database with Online Resources directly.

I guess that's why I was hoping to find out if either MineralBoss or MineralFile are professional quality Indexing Applications. It seems that Drilling Info is the most recommended, and unfortunately, I have already spoken with them, and their monthly fee is outside my budget.

I did in fact do an Unclaimed property search in TX, OK, LA, NM, and AR back in July, and yes found a nice little bit of kibble (which I mi madre sequestered because I hadn't yet make her sign a contract, I know better now). We also found 2 interests in OK, and 1 in NM we were previously aware of, and the assignments have even more property included in them that it most likely unrecorded :/


Wade Caldwell said:

Matthew,

I understand your situation.

You have already gotten some good ideas above. However, I am not sure if I saw whether you have created any indexes, which is where I suggest starting. An index of mineal properties, and an index of producers is very helpful. I update mine every time I get a new piece of information, whether a tax statement, deed, division order, etc. Also start calendaring the expiration date of leases, so you can track what acreage is open.

The main advantage of DrillingInfo. com is, in my opinion, the email alerts you can set up anytime there is an event of interest on or near your properties. For example, if i get an email showing a completion report has been filed, I tickle the 120 days to start bugging the producer for a division order. Many try to drag it out and hold onto the money.

If you or a cpa are preparing financial statements, you may want to look into Oildex. The setup fee is about $500 and the monthly fee is about $53, but they give you all your data electronically so you don't have to manually input checkstubs. The handle data for over 40 companies.

On financials, I suggest organizing it by lease or by well, instead of by producer. Especially with mature fields, operators sell production or split the oil and gas payors so often, it is really hard to track by producer. It also lets you know when a well has stopped paying, as we have had several situations where a producer stopped paying because of title disputes, sold production, etc.



I assume you have done a thorough unclaimed property search. Very important.

Finally, keep at it and share the information with people who will eventually be taking this over from you and train them. It is amazing how much information dies because other relatives do not know where to look if something happens to you.
8

??

Jim Bemis said:



Mathew Brandon Love-Waraksa said:

Hello Wade,

Firstly, Your Blog post "INTERNET RESOURCES FOR MINERAL OWNERS" has been of infinite assistance. Thanks.

I have been indexing everything on paper (about 10 notebooks worth), and have even tried to teach myself how to create a Microsoft Access Database to more completely index the resources and connect Assignments all the way through to Payout for producing royalties, and to have complete profiles with local activity, maps, etc. for those interests that are not producing.

The fact is that building this kind of Database in Access is ridiculously time consuming, and that doesn't even include if I try to start integrating the Database with Online Resources directly.

I guess that's why I was hoping to find out if either MineralBoss or MineralFile are professional quality Indexing Applications. It seems that Drilling Info is the most recommended, and unfortunately, I have already spoken with them, and their monthly fee is outside my budget.

I did in fact do an Unclaimed property search in TX, OK, LA, NM, and AR back in July, and yes found a nice little bit of kibble (which I mi madre sequestered because I hadn't yet make her sign a contract, I know better now). We also found 2 interests in OK, and 1 in NM we were previously aware of, and the assignments have even more property included in them that it most likely unrecorded :/


Wade Caldwell said:

Matthew,

I understand your situation.

You have already gotten some good ideas above. However, I am not sure if I saw whether you have created any indexes, which is where I suggest starting. An index of mineal properties, and an index of producers is very helpful. I update mine every time I get a new piece of information, whether a tax statement, deed, division order, etc. Also start calendaring the expiration date of leases, so you can track what acreage is open.

The main advantage of DrillingInfo. com is, in my opinion, the email alerts you can set up anytime there is an event of interest on or near your properties. For example, if i get an email showing a completion report has been filed, I tickle the 120 days to start bugging the producer for a division order. Many try to drag it out and hold onto the money.

If you or a cpa are preparing financial statements, you may want to look into Oildex. The setup fee is about $500 and the monthly fee is about $53, but they give you all your data electronically so you don't have to manually input checkstubs. The handle data for over 40 companies.

On financials, I suggest organizing it by lease or by well, instead of by producer. Especially with mature fields, operators sell production or split the oil and gas payors so often, it is really hard to track by producer. It also lets you know when a well has stopped paying, as we have had several situations where a producer stopped paying because of title disputes, sold production, etc.



I assume you have done a thorough unclaimed property search. Very important.

Finally, keep at it and share the information with people who will eventually be taking this over from you and train them. It is amazing how much information dies because other relatives do not know where to look if something happens to you.
9

Mathew,

I guess I goofed on trying to edit my post -- my apologies.

I wanted to thank all of the contributors to this discussion, which has been so helpful to those of us trying to sort out our older (as well as newer) mineral holdings. Time and again, I've benefited from Forum advice offered by knowledgeable experts like Misters Kennedy, Caldwell, Cotten, and Tooke. For me, your posts and their replies serve as a tutorial for my efforts to keep track of all the newer O&G technologies and laws.

So, please know how much I appreciate your pointing me in the right direction to clean up my records. Seems to me that electronic record-keeping and documentation would be a valuable topic for all of us, whether just starting or trying to keep updated with the new software and electronic tools.

And, of course, The Forum, per se, is tops!!

Thanks, again

Jim Bemis

10

Jim,

I am glad that you found the thread to be of benefit. I know I certainly have :)

Mathew

11

Mr Matthew, thank you for starting this thread and many thanks to all of the professionals who are offering their advice here. Lots of good information has been presented. I work with a number of mapping softwares and would like to mention a couple of the inexpensive ones. a couple in the 250 - 400$ range are Golden software's Map Viewer and Blue Marble's Global Mapper. Stay away from esri's arcmap, way too expensive and very hard to learn. Most gis softwares will take data in Microsoft access, excel ect and correlate it with a geographic area. You will find that there is a lot of free data out on the web, like original surveys, roads, county boundaries ect. Usually this data is in the esri .shp format, a shapefile. All the other programs will either read it or translated it into their format. with a bit of learning you can take scanned plats from your leases and register them into your maps. These programs link databases to the maps. You can click on a area and query the data base about whatever attributes a site has. It may be easier to organize your data if you can visualize it on a map. It could help a lot if you have multiple leases on the same or adjoining tracts. Global Mapper is downloadable free for a 30 day trial, we call it the "swiss army knife" of geospatial programs because it will read and export just about any format ever invented. It is also very good with .pdf's and google earth. I like it for some things, but not for others. I also use a program called Didger, which can work with well logs and turn scanned logs into digital format.

Once you figure out what you have and where it is another question may come up. Are there places on your leases where additional development wells should be drilled. I assume that mostly this would be taken care of by the operators but in some cases it may not be. For that you will need a geologist who knows the area.

I wish you the best of luck

12

Thank you Andy, I'm not quite to the point where I'm ready to map everything out, but all of these resources have now been bookmarked, so when I am I have some options. I'm still in the "locate and database" phase of Property Organization, while simultaneously trying to re-acquire a complete list of all D/O and Leases currently active.

Thanks to help from Charles, I may have recourse to get wither some files back, or remuneration for them, but it is still a long shot, so I am still on my main mission, and having maps of any local activity in proximity of my interests will be of paramount importance at some point, so thank you again.

Mathew