Hello,
My mother has mineral rights in ND. On one of her oil and gas leases it states the township, range, and section "containing 160 acres, more or less". Now, I know my mothers sister has a lease stating the exact same land. Is there any way to find out if there are more people with rights on this exact same land? My mothers sister is not mentioned in Mom's lease so I assumed there could be other people with rights to the same land area, is that the case?
Andy, did the lease offer or the lease itself make mention of net mineral acres ? If in the past your family bought the property from someone else, the previous owners may have reserved some rights to the minerals. I can look at electronic records for the last 20 years or so, but to know for sure who has ownership in your parcel, there is no substitute for a trip to the courthouse. I have just under 4 net acres in a 1/4 section, and there are probably 60 to 70 other people who have ownership there also, many are extended family. I think your lease or the letters that preceeded or came with the lease would be your best clue to how much you own, short of that trip to the courthouse. Bear in mind that landmen make errors sometimes also. If something looks way off it might be worth looking into.
Its the lease itself, one says 160 acres, the other says 438 acres. I've seen an old pooling agreement that had about 40 people on it, but i figured that could be for the whole 640 acre section? Mom has rights in 4 different sections and she said she her dad bought the rights way back in the 1950's. I was thinking about hiring a landman to do a title search as Williston is 650 miles from me! A landman should be able to tell you the exact percentage right?
I wonder what mineral rights went for in the 50's, $50/acre?
Yes a landman should be able to tell you, and a good one who has done work on your moms stuff before will have kept notes. If you can find and hire them you'd be ahead. I think mineral rights could have sold for a little as $5 an acre in 1950. I know that in the early to late 60's people were leasing for $25 to $50 in the areas that the oil companies thought desirable. How times have changed.
Well, i think I answered my own question. I found a bunch of oil leases that list the same land as my Mom's on NDRIN. So I assume she just owns a percentage then. Ah well, thought we might get rich :o)
How would i find out what gross acres are?
I have 900 gross acres an was wourdiing what that comes out to in mineral acres?