Have my Neighbors Leased or Sold?

General Mineral Rights Discussion
1

Is there a way, at the Courthouse(TX) or online, to see if other Landowners in your area have leased or sold their Mineral Rights?

Thanks,

Mark

2

If the instruments have been recorded it may be possible for you to use an online document retrieval service like www.texasfile.com or www.courthousedirect.com. One can often determine surface ownership in Texas by searching " [Name of county], Texas CAD", e.g., Reeves County, Texas CAD. Sometimes these Central Appraisal District websites have an interactive GIS map showing all the parcels in addition to name and address searches.

3

Thank you AJ; I couldn't figure out how to see it on the county CAD website but it may be there and I'm not computer Savvy enough to find it. I'll just call them tomorrow.

I will also try texas file and courthouse direct.

What we have is a big move down our Farm Road in a creek bottom and the company is trying to "BUY" instead of traditional lease. We heard one party refused to sell and the company reluctantly leased their rights; I was just trying to see if this was recorded somewhere.

Thank you again

4

You are welcome, Mark R. The company may be wanting to buy the surface for a drillsite, disposal well, etc. Do you own the surface and the minerals? Consider getting an oil and gas attorney to help you with any negotiations. If you have trouble using texasfile and have company and owner names I and/or others here will try to help.

5

This Interactive Drilling Permit Map is easy to use. Enter a date range, click on the submit button, and then zoom in on your area of interest.

6

Thank you

7

CAD's do not have the information you are looking for. Post the county you wish to look in and someone can tell you if they are online or not

8

If he does not have the names of the owners, he can use "property search" and "interactive map" features to determine the surface owners and then use the other online resources to see if there have been any recent recordings of warranty or mineral deeds and/or oil and gas leases. My property searches on texasfile using Blk, Sec, Abst descriptions seem to produce checkered results in comparison to searching by names. Professionals with subscription access to the likes of DrillingInfo can tap a wealth of information.

9

I can see all of the landowners on the County CAD: you can even see the last 3 Deed transactions but it appears that does not include Minerals; just Real property deed transactions'

It is Angelina County

10

Go to www.texaslandrecords.com. They have the Deed Records back to 1962

11

Mark R, Do you mind sharing the name of the company?

Also, since you do not know the mineral ownership, you may have to reverse engineer from the present land owners. For instance, if a land owner is John Doe, on texasfile you would enter Doe John and select the grantee filter. A search would hopefully take you back to John Doe's warranty deed where the grantor reserved the minerals. Then you would try to follow the grantor's ownership and leasing activities with a grantor search.

12

Blackstone

13

Searching texasfile for 'blackstone" yields only one lease. However, when the words "black stone" are used, a number of mineral deeds are shown to have been recorded in the last couple of months.

14

Black Stone Minerals Houston TX

Thanks AJ

15

You are welcome, Mark. Searching texasfile using "black stone" will reveal a number of mineral deeds--maybe some are your neighbors.