I recently inherited mineral rights from my Grandfather. I received a fairly large binder which I believe outlines what I now own. Apart from that, I really have no knowledge about mineral rights ownership. These mineral rights are all located in North Dakota. Does anyone know of someone I could contact to learn about what I have and what I need to do to maintain these rights?
Welcome to the forum and the oil and gas business!
You can start here on the forum with the topic areas in ND. The Mineral Help tab above is a good primer. You can join the National Association of Royalty Owners www.naro-us.org. They have a North Dakota Chapter with really good directors, conventions, webinars, etc.
The first thing you need to do is sort your binder (you are so blessed to have one) into how it makes sense to you. Many of us sort by State, County, Township and Range, then section. Then under that comes leases in the correct section(s), wells and Division Orders. Royalties can be sorted that way or by operator, then wells. North Dakota has a required “Statement of Claim of Mineral Interest” that is due every 20 years to prevent your non-producing minerals from being returned to the surface owner if they request them. I claim all of the mineral rights, producing and non-producing, just to cover the bases and have the timing set as standard for each of them. You can file multiple tracts on the same statement, but file the tracts for each county in the county where they are located.
You need to search the unclaimed funds at the state treasurer’s office where your Grandfather lived to see if there is missinig money. www.missingmoney.com.
You need to notify every operator that was paying your grandfather that you have inherited and to switch payments to you and any other heirs. Be ready with death certificate, probate or trust information, your driver’s license and whatever else they need.
Those will get you started and then you may have some additional questions, so ask them in the county where the minerals are located and forum folks will help.
Learn how to use the NDIC website. Oil and Gas Subscription Services. Very useful information there!