My wife and I moved from Denver, Co to DFW area about three years ago, ostensibly for her job. I'm retired and as long as I get everything on her list done, my time is my own.
About a year ago, my parents, specifically my Mom asked me if I could investigate the families mineral rights. Could you say no to your parents? I cannot.
So, a long process began about a year ago that I'll call 'Phase 1', which was all the leg work and legal work to getting all the families holdings identified and legally/properly in our family name.
After two abstracts, I finally end up contacting the Lea County Probate Judge, who was EXTREMELY nice and very helpful. She explained what needed to be done.
With the Abstracts done, I noticed one thing. There were SEVERAL names on the mineral rights. They were ALL my relatives. None of them are still alive and to the best of my knowledge, none of them have any surviving heirs. Only my Dad and my Mom.
However, the Probate Judge suggested we go back three generations and see about wills and line of heirs.
I got my great grandparents information. My Great Grandfather DID have a will and it said exactly what we thought it would say. IE, all mineral rights went to his two sons. They are both dead. One of his sons (my grandfather) did have two sons (one of which is my Dad) my uncle passed away several years ago.
So, after getting all of the information from Tulsa ($60 worth of certified copies of death certificates and will), it was plain to the Probate judge that all ownership went to the surviving son (my dad).
I now have an updated mineral deed and a 'Letter of Administration' that says that I am the family personal representative. In Texas, the 'Letter of Administration' would be called 'Letter of Testamentary'.
I have been slowly working my way through a large ream of papers (leases & copies of leases mainly) that came from my fathers mother and from my parents. One of the things I did notice is that our family also own mineral rights in both Kansas & Oklahoma - but I will first get the issues resolved in New Mexico first.
It appears we own approximately 1000 acres of mineral rights in SE Lea County. The reason I went this far, is because over the past twenty years or so, my Grandmother had one piece of property leased and a gas well was drilled. It produced from 1993 until 2005. It changed hands once, six years after the well was drilled. In 2005, the second energy company capped the well. My parents had a lease, but no wills were drilled.
So here I am, now starting 'Phase 2', trying to find an energy company that has an interest in getting energy out of the land.
The 'providence' part?
When we moved here, after looking for almost three months, we finally found a place we could both agree on. One of our next door neighbors collects Military Vehicles - I collect MVs. He and his wife have the same name as my wife's sister and BIL. The wife just retired recently from an O&G attorney's office. She worked there a long time.
Phase 2 has just started. I contacted the energy company the family has done business with in the past. Two leases, one gas well. They said they were not interested.
Now I am in the process of attempting to raise the interest of a driller.
I figured that helping my parents may be the actual reason as to why we are here in Texas.
I just wanted to share this. It has been a long and very educational year.
The interesting part is the next door neighbor who worked in the O&G industry had NOTHING good to say about any O&G company representatives. I am beginning to get the idea that she may have spoken the truth.
Time will tell.
Sorry, I just felt a need to vent. It's been a long year. I've learned a lot since I found this site. I have not posted much because I have not had a lot to say. But finally, we are ready to start looking for a driller.
Any suggestions? Comments? Observations?
thx
jim
