Newly Discovered Mineral Deed as a Beneficiary

General Mineral Rights Discussion
1

I was approached by an energy company as a retaliative (I’m the beneficiary) owned three mineral deeds.

I’ve located the two deeds in McKenzie County and have not located the one deed in Mountrail County. The offer included the legal descriptions.

I have located wells in two of the four sections but the ownership is in specific lots, not sure of the wells are exactly on the lots.

I assume a I need a local appraiser to provide services?

Questions;

  • If there are wells within the section, is it possible the wells have produced royalties that are siting somewhere?
  • I assume our offer is far undervalue if there are wells, and they had to do some digging to find me as the beneficiary.
  • Is it possible that the ownership included surface rights at one point as well?
  • Will an appraiser located all the documents we need to make the best assumptions to value the deed?

Thanks for the assistance!

2

If you give the section, township and ranges, then if would be easier to answer your question. Have you already done the due diligence to transfer the title to your name or gone through a probate? You can’t sell it if your title is not clear. And you may not want to sell it. Have you looked up to see if there are unclaimed funds under the party’s name? Have you contacted the operators?

3

I have checked the ND unclaimed property site with nothing, but I understand it may not appear there.

The deed is not currently in my name, still in my deceased relatives name for which I am the beneficiary.

Do operators have a department to field these type of calls?

TOWNSHIP 152 NORTH, RANGE 99 WEST, OF THE 5TH P.M. Section 2

TOWNSHIP 153 NORTH, RANGE 98 WEST, OF THE 5TH P.M. Section 32

TOWNSHIP 153 NORTH, RANGE 91 WEST, OF THE 5TH P.M. Section 3 and Section 10

Appreciate the help!

4

Yes, ask for the Division Order department or Revenue or Royalty owners. Different companies call them different things. They will tell you what paperwork they will need.

If the deceased lived in another state, check that state and also Delaware.

TOWNSHIP 152 NORTH, RANGE 99 WEST, OF THE 5TH P.M. Section 2-LOTS of horizontal wells. Continental Resources is your operator. Some wells have surface location in 2, Some in Section 11

TOWNSHIP 153 NORTH, RANGE 98 WEST, OF THE 5TH P.M. Section 32. This is the northern part of the wells with surface location in 2. Continental is the operator.

TOWNSHIP 153 NORTH, RANGE 91 WEST, OF THE 5TH P.M. Section 3 and Section 10. Again, LOTS of horizontal wells that mostly go roughly east-west. Surface locations are in 3, 4, 8, 9. Contact Whiting Oil & Gas.

If this were me, I would have the estate pay for a discounted cash flow evaluation of the wells before I considered selling. Too much to lose here by not having a good analysis.

5

What has happened to make you Legally the beneficiary of the deceased relative.

6

A probate. If the minerals reside in the state of the deceased it is far more simple. If, on the other hand, the minerals resides in a state or states outside the state of residence ancillary probates are required are in each to pass legal title. Fortunately many states have enactments for short form probates since many times the only ownership may be real estate and or minerals.

7

What is a discounted cash flow evaluation and who does that?

8

A discounted cash flow is a forecast of how much royalty income will happen each month in the future. Since a dollar tomorrow has less value than a dollar today (people want to get paid sooner rather than later for a reason), “discount factors” are financial methods used to quantify how much less that future income is worth. Usually a 8%-14% discount factor is standard for producing wells.

It’s generally recommended to have an engineer perform the forecast and discounting, but other professions can also provide this if properly trained (geologists, CPAs, CFPs, landman, etc). www.SPEE.org and https://www.mineralsappraisers.org are two societies of professionals who do this type of work.

9

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