Oil interests that have been lost track of

I own oil interests on a well. I am being told the well was plugged and “therefore” my continued interest was nullified. Is that true?

Another question, there seem to be many oil interests that have gone missing. When lease interests are transferred, isn’t it the leasing company’s obligation to keep track of everything?

Is there a handbook or primer that I can read to understand how this works?

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Good news is MOST areas don’t work like that. If a well is plugged, only the lease is nullified, meaning you just have unleased minerals. Where is this interest located?

For the second question, the interest owner is really held responsible for making sure things get transferred and set up in the operator’s system correctly. In an ideal case the operator would reach out and say “Hey, looks like you own this interest…want your money?” (and they sometimes do if the interest payment on that money makes it worth their time) but it doesn’t usually work like that.

Tracy has good answers. There are several books out there and many websites to search. If you give a state and county, we can get you started in the right direction for where to start hunting.

They are located in Niobara County Wyoming. Thank you for your direction.

The Wyoming oil and gas division website would be a good place to start.
Here is their well viewer. ArcGIS Web Application

Here is their main site.

He could also own an overriding royalty interest in a federal lease. If the lease expires, so will the overriding royalty interest. So you first need to understand what you own and where you own it.

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Greetings, you’re absolutely correct. They need to find out what they own. I researched my property and It turns out to be dessert property. Not sure what I can do with it. Maybe one day some company will need to run pipes.

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