I've just received an offer from 'Drovers Trail' for a 3 year mineral oil lease for close to 60 acres in Payne County, OK, Section 19, Township 19North, Range 4East. They are offering 4 options, 3 of which include upfront bonus's with small royalties (if oil is found), the last which offers no bonus and .25% royalties of oil found. I don't know which offer is wisest to accept, or if I should be negotiating for more.
Also, these 60 acres are in my mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers names, C/O (care of) ME. Dovers Trail says they can transfer everything easily into my name (as I am the sole heir) when they send me contracts to sign, after I've decided what option I would like to accept from them. Hum.....it took me over a year to get the quick claim deeds sorted out for the other pieces my grandmother left me in Caddo County and Beckham County, so it sounds too good to be true that these Payne County rights can all be transferred into my name so easily.
Does anyone know a good Mineral/Oil lawyer who handles this area, hopefully one who will work on percentages of my lease or a contingency of some kind? Or, someone I can talk to on the phone about all this who has experience with these thing. I live in California, so this all feels somewhat daunting.