Advice Needed - Mineral Rights Inherited

General Mineral Rights Discussion
1

Hey All,

Wow! What a blessing to have discovered this website. I've been doing a lot of research on mineral rights as of late and this forum and it's members will no doubt contain just the advice and guidance I need! :)

My mother passed away just last year and shortly after I received a letter from a company in Oklahoma wanting to buy my mineral rights. It even had a check inside the envelope. First of all, I almost threw the letter away b/c I thought it was junk mail. But thankfully I kept it, b/c when my aunt (my mother's sister) called me and asked me about the same letter she had received I knew something was up.

It turns out that my late grandmother had some mineral rights in Comanche County, OK and they of course were left to her two daughters upon her passing. My mother certainly never mentioned anything to me about it, and my aunt only vaaaaaugely recalled knowing about them. Even then, she was shocked to have received an offer to buy them.

So, as I said I've done a bit of research into a topic which is completely new to me. I've read about surface rights vs. mineral rights and more on this website:

http://geology.com/articles/mineral-rights.shtml

and on this website as well

http://www.mineralweb.com

Both have been very helpful in understanding what mineral rights are and how they work. However, I'm still in a predicament. I know it would be very foolish for my aunt and I to sell our mineral rights without knowing more about them and what they are really worth. Furthermore, I have no idea the history behind these mineral rights. Is a company currently accessing the minerals on this land? I don't recall my mother ever receiving any royalty checks, and my aunt says she certainly has not.

Ironically, after reading some posts in this forum I discovered the idea that perhaps my grandmother has unclaimed property (in this case ... MONEY) in the state of Oklahoma. So I did some research and indeed found her name TWICE in their database. All it says is she is owed "over $100" for each entry. I most definitely will be looking into this situation much further.

Anyway, the real point for this forum post is to obtain some advice on what I should do next. Again, the mineral rights are on land in Comanche County, Oklahoma. Speaking on behalf of my aunt, we have no idea the size of land for which we own mineral rights nor do we know the ratio % of ownership. I've thought about making the 7+ hour drive to the Comanche County courthouse to do some research, but then again I don't want to drive all that way unless I know what I'm doing. It might be better to hire a landman in the area and have him/her do the research..??

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer. My aunt and I truly appreciate it.

Cheers!

- Matthew

2

Matthew:

First things first. Don't consider selling any mineral rights as one day they could be worth thousands, possibly millions depending on the area they are located in. You possibly got an offer from Bridgeport Mineral Aquisition Fund in regards to purchasing your minerals. I have recieved numerous letters from them in their attempts to purchase my minerals in North Dakota and Montana. I would never sell minerals under any conditions. You need to consider leasing them and alot of information is available on this website in regards to leasing. Second, since you seem unsure about the research of these records, it would probably be a good idea to contact an Oil and Gas attorney in that area or county to handle these legal matters. We used an attorney in Montana to handle our transfer of minerals and filing the proper paperwork. It was not very expensive and was handled promptly. Maybe someone else on this board can elaborate on your situation.

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Charles, I have 1000's of mineral acres I'd love to sell to you and I won't even ask millions then you can sit back and make billions, maybe trillions. For every one that made any money on minerals there were 100's of thousands that didn't. Minerals in Comanche county are worth a fraction of what minerals are worth in producing counties of ND. Yeah maybe one day, maybe not but it's wrong to tell someone to never sell and they may never make a dime, not all stories end like a fairytale. That's very poor advice your giving people.

Matthew,

The unclaimed money could be from anything like utility or insurance refund, what was your grandparents name and I'll take a look if it were from a pooling order and if you give me the legals I'll let you know if there were any wells or you could pay thousands to an oil & gas attorney as recommended by someone else here?

1 Like
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@Roger: Thanks for your offer of sharing information with me. I am unable to send you a message until we are friends on this website. I've added you as a friend. Once you confirm it, feel free to send me any information you think will be helpful for my situation. Thx!

@Charles: Thanks for the info. It makes sense to me to not sell the mineral rights (at least right away) until I know more about them. Do you have any Oil and Gas attorney contacts in Comanche County, OK? Thx in advance.

@Mineral Joe: I'm hoping these mineral rights are worth something. The company (Enerlex, Inc.) offered us a decent chunk of change for the rights (around $2,500). But again, I won't sell until I know what they are really worth and why they want to buy them.

I doubt the unclaimed money is from a utility or insurance refund as my grandmother never lived in Oklahoma. I'm really thinking the unclaimed monies could be tied to these mineral rights. Which begs another question to be asked: What does the mining company do with the money they owe to someone who is deceased? I presume give it to the State for the unclaimed property fund, no?

I will friend you as well Mineral Joe. Please let me know what info you need from me to do a bit of research on your end. Thx in advance!

- Matthew

5

It was probably force pooled and that’s where the money came from so there maybe a well. They did pool many in Comanche that they never drilled on though because the wells were not too good. $2500, per acre or total? They pay to the state as a trust the monies from the pooling order and place royalties in suspense.

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Mineral Joe:

My advice not to sell is somewhat my philosophy with past experience. Years ago, I knew several individuals who sold their mineral rights for a little of nothing in an area which had never seen production. As time passed on, the drilling of gas wells (deep) began occuring to the East of this area and today the area is in the Haynesville Shale gas field. Yes, these individuals still live in the area and probably regret the decision they made years ago to sell. That was my point about selling minerals.

Matthew: I am sorry but I can't help you in regards to an attorney in the Comanche County area. I live in East Texas and our minerals are mainly in the Montana/North Dakota area so I am not famililar with Oklahoma.

Mineral Joe said:

Charles, I have 1000's of mineral acres I'd love to sell to you and I won't even ask millions then you can sit back and make billions, maybe trillions. For every one that made any money on minerals there were 100's of thousands that didn't. Minerals in Comanche county are worth a fraction of what minerals are worth in producing counties of ND. Yeah maybe one day, maybe not but it's wrong to tell someone to never sell and they may never make a dime, not all stories end like a fairytale. That's very poor advice your giving people.

Matthew,

The unclaimed money could be from anything like utility or insurance refund, what was your grandparents name and I'll take a look if it were from a pooling order and if you give me the legals I'll let you know if there were any wells or you could pay thousands to an oil & gas attorney as recommended by someone else here?

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Matthew,

I work for an oil and gas auction company based in Oklahoma City. We routinely help people get an idea of what their assets could be valued at even if they don't end up being clients of ours. If you would like, feel free to shoot me an email or call my office and I can help you get some reports on surrounding wells and talk to our petroleum engineers to get their thoughts. Our office number is 877-237-7578. I'm happy to help if I can.

8

Being in the Lawton area its not like your in an area that has never seen production. Do some research on what is going on in the area, other wells in the area. Baker Hughes rig map doesn’t show any active rigs in the area but that doesn’t mean there isn’t future potential. I would agree with many on here if you don’t need the funds don’t sell the minerals, if production is found you will regret the opportunity of possibly benefitting your future generations financial well being.

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Thanks to everyone for their replies on this discussion. I very much appreciate all of the guidance with regards to this matter.

Today was very fruitful in my research on these mineral rights. I uncovered A LOT of information, including the well name, the operator of the well, the amount of net mineral acreage, the royalty percentage, and most importantly that the company offering to buy these mineral rights (Enerlex, Inc.) was offering a very low amount to say the least. Turns out there is over $20,000 in unclaimed property owed to my grandmother!! I also seem to have uncovered other mineral rights in my grandmother's name in a completely different county of Oklahoma.

It seems the next step is to find out how my aunt and I can rightfully claim these unclaimed monies, as well as get these mineral rights and leases put into our names. I suspect we may need the help of a lawyer since we don't believe my grandmother ever had probate done on her estate in Oklahoma.

If anyone has advice on the next steps we should take in order to achieve these steps my aunt and I would be most appreciative.

Cheers!

- Matthew

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Hey all,

All of this P.I. work has got me to thinking. Is there a public database which contains all mineral rights and who owns them? Perhaps by state? It would be nice to know if perhaps my grandmother doesn't have additional mineral rights aside from those discussed above.

Thoughts?

In this case, I discovered the following website:

http://okcountyrecords.com

Would it contain entries for all mineral rights owned within the state of Oklahoma?

Cheers!

- M

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Hey Jake,

Thanks for the reply. The counties of interest are Comanche and Stephens. The well for Comanche county is Coleman 1-11 and is being operated by the Sanguine Gas Company. The well for Stephens county is Thunderhawk 1-34 and is being operated by Marathon Oil (or so I'm told, although I could not confirm this from my research).

I believe my grandmother just owns the mineral rights and they were leased out. In fact, from my research it seems that HEMERA LAND INC was the grantee in her Comanche county mineral rights lease. Although, when trying to call them I got a number disconnected.

The grantee for the Stephens county mineral rights is marked as CITIZENS PETROLEUM CORP. I could find nothing on the net about them though. Probably a company that is long gone.

I am happy to provide more details, but to be honest I don't want to make public any information that should not be. For example, is it a no-no to publicly post legal descriptions for owned mineral rights? Could someone somehow swipe the rights with this info along with the owner's name, etc?

Cheers!

- Matthew

Jake said:

I know it can be different from state to state. Texas, for instance has great records whereas other states havent even updated their PLSS maps since the the late 1800s... really. My company has been doing a decent amount of research in some parts of Oklahoma so I may have some relevent data. I may have missed it but i did not see what county(ies) the proeprties were in... do you know what the counties are? And was your grandmother the land owner? or did she just have interest in the mineral rights or lease (royalty interest, working interests, overriding interest... etc.)? Let me know what you find and I'll be happy to check my database. Dont know if it will help but I will at least give it a shot if I have the data for those particular counties. Also, you might try checking the websites for each county rather than the whole state for their databases.

JG

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Hey Jake,

I just added you as a friend on here. Accept my request and then we can send personal messages to one another. I would love to see the information you have for each of those wells and operators.

Cheers!

- Matthew

13

So Rodney Summerville, you say you are actively acquiring Comanche county minerals, what then are you paying per acre in general?

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There are a lot of determining factors that go in to comprising an offer for minerals. Do you own 100% of the minerals, are they under lease and if so to who and what are the terms, are they producing, the price of oil and gas, where in the county are they located so on and so forth. The reasoning behind my post was to let you know that not only can my company provide you with a quality land professional to perform the necessary work in determining mineral ownership (If you are wanting to invest the money to seriously determine the status of your recently inherited minerals) but we also are a mineral and royalty acquisitions company. We are in the process of closing on some minerals in Comanche as we speak for $250/NMA. Last month I purchased some minerals in LaSalle County, TX for $5800/NMA.

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I also have rights to minerals on some property in California. My dad died without a will, so at least 1/3 of the mineral rights belong to me (his surviving wife and my brother are the other two and the rights were inherited by my father when his mother passed away in 1962, so not community prop. with his last wife). Without any record of transfer of rights recorded in the county where the land is, my brother leased the portion which had belonged to my father to one of the oil companies. I was not included or informed at the time nor has anything been done to correct this. I have obtained copies of documents on record in the county and think I can file a claim on my father's portion of the rights, as neither my brother nor my father's wife have done this.

Any thoughts on this situation from the rest of you?

Thanks - NPierce

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I would appreciate the name of that Montany attorney also. Thank you.

LDL5159@msn.com

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Joel & Lindsey:

The attorney we used several years ago was Laura Christoffersen (Christoffersen & Knierim Law Firm). She was located in Culbertson, Mt. The phone number was (406) 787-5700. We had good luck with her as she handled some transfers of minerals including recording these transactions at the County Clerk's office. We haven't needed an attorney recently, in this area but they were very prompt in taking care of our matters when we used them.

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Thank you, Charles!



charles s mallory said:

Joel & Lindsey:

The attorney we used several years ago was Laura Christoffersen (Christoffersen & Knierim Law Firm). She was located in Culbertson, Mt. The phone number was (406) 787-5700. We had good luck with her as she handled some transfers of minerals including recording these transactions at the County Clerk's office. We haven't needed an attorney recently, in this area but they were very prompt in taking care of our matters when we used them.

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Watch Enerlex. Check out their deeds for added clauses....and be aware they don't tell you about any suspended funds and take them if they can!! Usually Enerlex buys the mineral interest with the seller's own money!!! They even want you to agree you won't sue them!!

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From what I recently heard from a local attorney, Enerlex is getting away with it, the courts seem to be on their side.