I inherited mineral rights to a lease in Palo Pinto County when my Dad passed away a little over a year ago. The papers were file and I began receiving small monthly checks. After about nine months the checks stopped. I contacted the oil company I was getting checks from. They said there were some problems with the field, hole in a pipe, they were going down there to do some work etc. Couple months later, I called back. Oil company says they may get another operator to take over, the gas wasnt very high quality, and maybe I would see checks in the future. Thats been several months ago. The only docs I have ar the division orders. I share the mineral rights with about 11 or 12 other people.
My question is, how do I find the actual lease paperwork, and how do you know if the oil and gas company is shooting straight with you. Im not familiar at all with the mineral rights process. I dint mind doing the research, just dont know how to go about it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Rex, you will need to go look for the original lease signed by the person you inherited it from. As the county clerks to show you around the deed records room, they will usually oblige! as far as getting more info about whats going on with the actual operations and whether your lease is still active I would start by location the lease and looking at the workover clause. Then you may need to look at how the lease defines the word operations as it relates to the workover clause. then you may need to do some site checking to see if they really are actively reworking the well. Providing written certified notice to the operator is always the best approach in my opinion.
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