So here’s the story:
My grandfather died in the 60’s and did not have a will. Recently on unclaimed property sites we put in his name for the heck of it and discovered he had over $20,000 in unpaid gas and oil royalties which we claimed and cashed out on and split among six heirs. Now we dug further and contacted the company who paid him, which is ConocoPhillips. They gave a paper which stated the wells he owned but they sold this to Hilcorp Energy. Most of the wells started drilling in the late 90’s after he died somehow and most are still active. Most of the wells are in New Mexico. I’m just wondering how all of this is possible and what are the options regarding this situation? ConocoPhillips says he owns the land and wells but I’m not sure how accurate that is. Obviously I’m completely not knowledgeable on this situation which is why I am asking. Plan to contact a lawyer in New Mexico soon who deals with this kind of thing. Do any of you have any recommendations? Thank you so much for any feedback!