I was contacted May 2025 by a rep from Texhoma Land Consultants about mineral rights that inherited in Green District, Wetzel County. The landman couldn’t give me much information, but did make sure that I was sent a corrected affidavit of death and heirship to sign and send back.
Through my own research, I found the property and by extension, the wells and the units they belong to. All wells have been in production since the beginning of 2022 and Antero was trying to track down everyone.
All of the paperwork was sent in to them by August, and they began the work on transferring ownership in January, but have been dragging their feet.
I have been in contact with an Owner Relations Rep at Antero who has been helpful, and I was originally told to expect a DO and W9 by mid April. But now, they’re making me wait on Texhoma to once again reach back out and send me a lease agreement before they can send me a DO.
My experience with Texhoma thus far hasn’t been positive, and I’ve been waiting more than a month on them to send me paperwork. Does anyone have any idea how long I should expect to continue waiting on this?
I know my share of the royalties are in suspense and will just keep accumulating, but this has been incredibly frustrating, and I’d just like an idea that’s better than the “soon” that the Antero Rep told me.
Can’t comment on the “soon” as who knows. But while you are waiting, it would be a good idea to file the affidavit of death and heirship at the county courthouse. That is where it needs to be filed. You cannot count on the operator to get around to filing it there. They just wanted it for their records. The courthouse is the legitimate repository of such information.
The only time an oil and gas company will move quickly is when they’re trying to get you to sign an oil and gas lease. Once that’s done, you’re just a squeaky wheel, and usually a small, insignificant one. It’s sad, but true. I’d say hire a lawyer (I’m a lawyer) but in reality, we’re not likely to speed the process up much. My office does have a good contact at Antero who is usually faster than going through the usual channels, but you’ve been at this for long enough it probably doesn’t make sense to get us involved.
I do wonder why they’re asking you to sign a lease, though. There should be a lease in place already by way of co-tenancy or forced pooling, both of which have been in existence since 2018. Makes me wonder if they made a mistake of some sort. Make sure to get a good bonus payment for that lease, at least $6,000 per net mineral acre, and at least a 20% royalty. If they need a lease from you after the fact, they should be paying good money. There could be a trespass lawsuit there, and those are pretty expensive.
Of course, all this depends on how many net mineral acres you have. If you only have 0.001 net, it’s just not going to be worth much at all. If you have more than an acre, it might be worth looking into a little more.