I’m hoping someone will be able to advise me on what I will need to do. We currently have (2) wells producing in Noble County, but recently found out that this was a Term Interest for 99 years at which time is will expire automatically and revert to the the grantor. I would have to negotiate a new deal with the current owners. I’m asking for help as to what I would have to do and/or how to even handle this. This goes all the way back to 1923, so obviously this has been in the family for a very long time.
If you are interested in negotiating a new term with the current owners, your first step will be figuring out who owns the reversionary interest. This reversionary interest is the grantor of that document and his/her heirs and successors, so who they sold their interest to or gave upon death. In Oklahoma, mineral ownership is very fractionalized so it may be a few or whole group of people/companies. You can do research online to try to determine the current owners at okcountyrecords.com. Since it goes back so far, you will have to also do some research in the county. Hiring a landman would be very beneficial in helping you figure out current owners.
You also need to find the original document to see how it reads. Some of them extend past the original time frame if the wells are still in production.
Thank you for the response and information. I do know that the current owners are 5MB Farms. I was able to find that out from the Operator of the well. We have never had to negotiate a new term on any of our interests. I am just not sure how to go about all of this.
We did find the original documents and the first deed recorded did state if the well was producing it would extend the time, but unfortunately it was corrected a few days later and omitted that last part to just state term interest for 99 years from 1923 to 2022.