I'm Confused

I have by heirship 19.79 acres of Lot 2 and all of Lot 3 and the NE 10 acres of Lot 4 all located in Section 19-9N-4W through a quitclaim mineral deed filed in McClain County. Can anyone help me understand what that means? I have the affidavit of heirship and I am the executor of my mother’s trust. Does anyone know what the potential value (if any)

Welcome. The sections along the western and northern tiers of a township are often not a pure 640. They are adjusted to account for the curvature of the earth. I attached the map from the Bureau of Land Management showing your section. Your description should have a bit more language in it because your have portion of Lot 2, 3, and 4 since they are quite a bit more in total than 19.79. It might say something like a 1/10 undivided… or something like that.

As to potential value, are you asking about estate value for tax purposes and step up value, leasing value or sales value? Each of those will have a different answer. Roan has a horizontal well in the section. The surface location is in 24-09N-5W. The Duke 19-9-4. The well was active as of 12/6/18 on the OK Tax Site. You should get a Division Order by about May and payment in June -if they have your address!

Suggest that you not sell at this point and contact Roan Resources and make sure that they know about your mother’s passing and ask what heirship documents they require to get into pay status. You need to get the title straight with them and also filed in the McClain County courthouse.

Martha we have royalty interests in The Duke. Do you have an opinion on long term viability of this well as it relates to production expectations. We have received numerous letters / phone calls ( as everyone else) about purchasing royalty interests. One call recently said there was the potential for 4-5 wells into the same area. Besides production expectations, I was wondering what anticipated “economic life” of The Duke -or any other related well for that matter might be. Thanks

The placement of the first The Duke well indicates that they have left room for future wells. There is not enough production on this first well to be super accurate, but the general performance of my other horizontal wells nearby indicate a life that will be decades long. A typical horizontal well has most of its production in the first four years of its life, but it can extend out for about 30-40 years (depending upon the reservoir and completion techniques) at low production. Stack the production of several wells in a section together and you get a nice payback in royalties. The amount of letters and phone calls is usually a sign that other buyers know that. In my experience, their offers are lowball to the actual value of your minerals. I encourage you not to sell.

Look up the investor presentations of Roan Resources, Continental Resources, Newfield/Encana, Marathon Oil, Chaparral and you will get a feel for what is going on around you.

Thank you for the information, we intend to hold on to our interests.

An affidavit of heirship is the weakest of all title in Oklahoma. However, if your mother transferred the minerals into the Trust, you will probably not need a probate. If you are the Trustee of the Trust, an affidavit of successor Trustee should be filed. Also need to look to the terms of the Trust to determine whether the assets are to be disbursed to beneficiaries or held. To search McClain County uses this link: https://okcountyrecords.com/search/mcclain