I have many small mineral interests in Bossier & Caddo Parishes, LA that were conveyed to me from my grandfather to mother and then myself back in the 70’s & 90’s. They were recorded. Some are still producing in my name. My questions are:
Do the non producing wells in the deed conveyances still hold over time?
There are some mineral deeds i located in my grandfather’s name. Not dealt with by my mother. Can they still be claimed ?
-Does LA require some type of mineral deed re-recording periodically?
THANKS!
Non-producing minerals prescribe back to the surface owner after 10 years - however, determining if they are in fact non-producing can be a complicated matter.
If the minerals under your grandfather’s name are still held by production, they are still valid and they are yours - there is nothing to do to claim them. You should make sure that your grandfather and your mother’s probate/Judgment of Possession (if they were a resident of Louisiana) is filed in each parish in which he owned minerals. You can also file an affidavit with your current contact information so that you can be found. If either were not a resident of LA it is possible to also file an affidavit of heirship stating where the probate is located and dates, heirs, etc. You must get an “Act of Congress” copy of an out of state probate to file it in a Louisiana parish - they will allow you to file a certified copy of a will filed in another state though. In general, you want to make sure that title flows from them to the current heirs in the parish where the minerals are located and that you can be located. Oil companies are not required to go out of the parish to establish title and if you have a small interest, they will just throw it in suspense until the time tolls and they must turn it over to the state. I suggest you check the state unclaimed property website just in case this has happened.
As for whether minerals have prescribed or not…Louisiana has the 10-year prescription but there are several ways for minerals to be held by production outside of the section.
a mineral servitude is created when the fee owner (owns both surface and minerals) sells either a mineral interest or the surface and reserves the minerals. If there is property in more than one section on this deed, and you can walk across it, not counting quarter corners which do not count as contiguous, then that has created a servitude on which all of the lands have to be considered when determining HBP status. It gets more complicated from here - but the date of the 10 years starts when the fee owner creates the two estates. Now, let’s say fee owner sells to Joe and has property in more than one section that creates a servitude. Then Joe sells to Jake but only property in one section. Jake’s mineral time clock start date is the original deed from Fee to Joe but only production on the property for which Jack has purchased would hold the minerals.
an OGML that has property in any section subject to a mineral servitude and another section - these do not have to be contiguous - and that does not have a unit clause - will hold all the property on the lease.
Further, units can be tricky matters as well. We have normal units but they can span over more than one section - the well is only listed in the section in which it is located and so research on sonris is neceassary to determine if there are any units in another section which may contain the property. We also have reservior units - which are not limited to a normal section and can be all kinds of crazy shapes as the unit is the entire reservoir and any well in it will hold the entire unit. For the newer large HA units the easiest way to find the units where a well is outside of your section is the sonris GIS map and turn on the bottomhole layer.
Wow thanks SO MUCH for the great info!
In Caddo Parrish i have a messy description deed in S34/35-19N -14W in the Sentell Unit and production in past 2 years is grinding to a halt.
In Bossier I have S23-23N-13W in Plain Dealing Field also grinding to a halt. Not much seems to be happening in the units(?). These 2 are what prompted me to ask if there was anything i needed to do.
In Bossier there are 7 scattered sections in the Benton Voluntary Unit that are busy.
Good news is my mother conveyed/recorded these to us in the mid 90’s
appreciated,
Blake
That Caddo well is old - drilled in 1951 and Sentell is actually a fieldwide unit - meaning that entire reservoir is the unit. I’ve attached the plat of the unit - you can see it’s an unusual shape. If the well stops producing your ten year clock will start then and if no one drills a hole in the ground during that time then the minerals will prescribe back to the surface owner. However, since this is a fieldwide unit - even if the one in Sect. 35 stopped producing another well would hold your minerals.
The Benton field is also a fieldwide unit - I’ve done a lot of work in that one the last few years. Same applies about the minerals - as long as something is producing in the unit the minerals are held as to the whole unit - and the Benton Field is pretty big - probably at least twice what the Sentell field is size wise - if not more. I would expect empressa to squeeze ever last drop that can out of the that field and if you have property spanning both in and out of the field I would expect at some point you will be included in one of the new units.
There are 2 lease based units in the that 23-23-13 - one well is in the NW and one is in the SW4. Both are super old - the Maston-Nance is doing better than the Wyche-Caldwell. That section is pretty far North of the HA activity and there really hasn’t been much going on that way so I wouldn’t expect anything in the near term but someone was talking in one of my land groups about some rare earth mineals being discovered in S. Arkansas - so you might get lucky there. Same as the others - as long as there’s production your minerals are held and once production ceases the ten year clock starts over.