ORRI Purchase Offer Eddy County

New Mexico Mineral Rights Eddy County, NM
1

Hello,

My wife’s side of the family has an ORRI in a handful of wells in Eddy County, NM. We have never received royalties because we think that it was never probated from her grandfather and we don’t know percentages. We recently have received a few letters with increasing offers that say this in part:

"Apollo Energy is currently acquiring oil and gas royalty rights in select portions of Eddy County, New Mexico, and we have determined that you may own an overriding royalty interest (“ORRI”) in the captioned property. Our offer to purchase all, or a portion, of your ORRI in the captioned property is as follows: Lands: Sec. 6-18S-27E, Sec. 29,30,31 & 33-17S-27E

Offer: $65,000"

I dug around as much as I could to actually find their well information and I have a list now if needed, but this letter makes it seem like it is more about the land. I was wondering if anyone could help me out to know what this company seems to know about the activity in the area? I’ve looked at some maps, but I’m not totally sure what I am looking at. The 2nd part of my question is about probating. One of her uncles sold his part when the offer was at $40k. The company said they would get the probating done as part of the agreement, but I haven’t heard anything. If these offers are like this, I really feel like we should be making sure to get the current royalties. How would I go about getting that done myself and making sure that it is set up?

Thank you!

2

First thing to do is check with www.missingmoney.com for royalties being held in state treasuries for the grandfather or any heirs.

Sec. 6-18S-27E, Has multiple horizontal permits by Riley Exploration. That is why you are getting the offers. Rover Petroleum or Riley Exploration may be the operator of the wells already producing in the section. Contact both of them and ask what your wife needs to do to get the ownership changed to the current heirs. You probably will need to get the will probated or work under the intestate laws of the state where the grandfather lived. I would get all title cleared up and royalties in the hands of the current heirs before making any decisions about selling. Do not rely on a buying company to do the probate work, They want those past royalties and the coming ones! You will lose them if you sell.

Sec. 29,30,31 & 33-17S-27E. Same thing for these sections. Current wells need to be changed over to new heirs and pending horizontals nearby. The horizontals are likely to far outpay the old vertical wells and likely pay out more than the sales offer. Do the legal work first and quickly. This area is part of the old Empire Oil Field. Now with new horizontal drilling.

3

Thank you for the quick response. Can I ask how you see those horizontal permits? I’m trying to learn how to understand all this as well.