I was asked to start a new thread in the forums, so that's why I'm here.
I recently inherited mineral rights in North Dakota upon the passing of my mother. She had been quite ill during her last years of life and her mineral rights issues simply got overlooked. When her probate was complete I began receiving checks every month and was interested to learn what these mineral rights were all about. I found this forum (thank God) and started researching.
In reviewing Mother's documents I found that I, along with some family members, owned the mineral rights to quite a few plots of which we were unaware. I got together everything I thought was pertinent and hired a North Dakota lawyer. Last week deeds were filed with the appropriate counties and I am awaiting copies of those, at which time I believe I will have to contact the various oil companies involved. Many of the plots have producing wells on them. I am aware that each county involved holds funds in trust for "unfound" relatives so I'm uncertain as to what all this will involve. I'll keep you posted.
Janie, the county may not be holding funds in trust. Only if an interested party went to court and petitioned and received an order for an Unlocatable Mineral Owner Trust, then the county treasurer would be the trustee. This is bad news because the trustee will have the lease set in front of them to sign and they will sign it no matter how bad the terms are. I have personally seen a case of a trustee signing a lease for $150 per acre bonus and 16.67% royalty in the better part of Mckenzie couty, when nearby leases were easily negotiated for $2,000 per acre and 20%. I hope you don't have any of those Unlocatable Mineral Owner "Trusts". See, aren't you glad you started a thread?
Lol, yes I am. I have learned a lot from this forum and thank you for your insights.
I now have several new Mineral/Royalty Deeds in hand. I have contacted the various operators of producing wells that are covered by the new deeds and have been researching leases in place and minerals produced. I have found the NDIC website to be great help in all this. If I have open and can easily access the information asked of my by the operators it saves a lot of time and frustration, and believe me, talking to the operators can be very frustrating. Most of the people I've spoken to and had to deal with have been very helpful and have bent over backwards to keep me informed. The only company that keeps up awake nights is XTO. They have put up nothing but road blocks. However, I have noticed that if I slip into the conversation a little tidbit that I learned on this site, specifically the fact that I am aware there is a considerable amount of interest due to me on funds that are held by the operator longer than 150 days after ownership has been established, some of those road blocks topple like a willow in the North Dakota winds.
At this time I am trying to find resources to learn more. Since for me all this involves a lot of family matters, I would like to be able to assist them in getting what they have coming to them as well. I would love to find a course where I could sit down and be taught. I am more than willing to travel to do so but, as of yet, I've found nothing. Short of that, asking questions here and elsewhere has been very informative and I will carry on. I do have a background of being a paralegal for 25 years which is helpful in understanding some of the process. A family member recently commented that I have always been the "smart" one in the family. If that's true, may God help us all.