Help with finding well information

General Mineral Rights Discussion
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I wasn’t sure what category to post this as it pertains to 4 different states. I have 2 needs:

  1. Our family were left mineral rights in my father’s will. We’re having difficulty finding out where some of the wells are located since we were left those as well though only one is still producing. We know they’re in OK, TX, LA, and AR but all we have are well names. Some of the wells I have located like one in OK but the rest evade me. Is there somewhere I can find wells by well name and not API# ? Any help you can give me would be appreciated.
  2. The one well we know about in Ellis County, OK lists the operator who will not return our calls and won’t return the many emails we’ve sent. Does anyone have any experience getting operators to reply? We’ve been approached by 4 or 5 companies to either sell or lease our interest and they’re needing a copy of royalty payments over the past year.

Thanks

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This is a big job. Rather than phone calls, try email to their owner relations or land department.

Has your father’s will been probated? Have there been ancillary proceedings in the other States. If there have not been probate proceedings, this could be part of your lack of response since the purchasers do not list you as an owner.

You can go to welldatabase.com and establish a free account to try and look up wells. All of the States you have listed will maintain a database that will help you locate wells by name but be prepared for a great deal of mismatches.

Time is on your side, so work diligently. Those buyers that want you to send them information are not the strongest buyers. I only request that type of information after an offer has been accepted to further document the acquisition and confirm nothing was overlooked.

1 Like
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  1. each state has their own oil and gas commission. We can give links for the states mentioned. Would you like them? API is more powerful than the name since it is unique, but Name is a good start.

  2. If you are getting offers in Ellis, then there is a new Cherokee play developing, location woud be very important as you would probably make more off of a new well than a sale, but depends upon the offer and the timing.

4

I was able to locate the wells through a few documents I found on okcountyrecords.com, assigning wells to others my father worked with at the same company. Seems as though several of my dad’s coworkers shared in the assignment of these wells as payment. I was also able to find where after my father’s passing, my mom assigned what looks like working interest to another oil company but retained ORRI in all of the section.

We’ve been speaking with a company who wants to purchase our interest and have been discussing leasing with others but no one seems to be very aggressive in getting something on paper. They all are asking for more documentation such as lease documents and titles which we don’t have. I’m not sure if they’re the ones who should be really looking for that information or we should. The specific area is Sec 10, Township 16N, Range 24W in Ellis County.

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Hi James,

Thanks for the reply. We have not had the will probated as of yet. We understand it has to be done at some point but we’re still gathering information. One company who owned some of the wells were not willing to discuss since we have not gone through probate.

Oddly enough, the operator finally called me yesterday but didn’t offer much help as they just referred me to okcountyrecords.com. Looking through the website I found 2 assignments: one assigning what looks like working interest to him in a well from the oil company my father worked for, and one in which my mother (my dad had passed a couple of years prior) who assigned the working interest to another exploration company but maintained and ORRI in the well. ONe of the documents seems to say the ORRI is for the entire section.

I did go to welldatabase.com and found a few things. The interesting thing is I found all of the wells we know about in another assignment of someone who worked with my father. We also found the possibility of more wells in Mississippi. It just keeps coming. Wish we had been more inquisitive before my mother passed but she wasn’t in a position to discuss them and I’m not sure she fully understood what she had.

Is there something we should be looking at when approached to sell or lease these rights. Are there questions we should be asking or should we have an expectation that they should be digging for the information vs having us do it?

Thanks again for your help.

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Beware of the lazy buyer! They are just looking for you to do their work and they will not be your best value.

I would encourage you to keep looking since sleuthing has now uncovered properties in MS. Great catch on looking at records from common owners for leads to other properties. Have you reviewed unclaimed property websites for your father? Check all of the States you have listed, MissingMoney.com, and the State of last residence for your father. If the property distribution came from a Company or your father has an unusual name, you can run a state wide check in okcountyrecords.com and texasfile.com.

I have to stress be diligent and patient. I was recently working with a family on an acquisition and discovered properties in 5 additional States. I also expanded their property list in the known States by over 50% and helped them discover several claims for UCP. So time, patience, and diligence almost always result in greater value. Good luck.