Receipt of royalty check for Tonto #001 after the passage of several years

The location is S25- 24S-37 E operated by Ranger Operating LLC. The run ticket goes back to 04/2017. The interesting part is that there are several months of 125/mo gas marketing charges during periods of no production in 2017 but doubling to $250/mo (still no production) in the 12 months 04/2018 to 02/2019. Also NM has no record of production in 2019 but Rover is selling small quantities of oil and gas, with most months being sold at a loss to royalty owner. I thought that the well would be plugged and lease returned if the well was unprofitable – A check was received for a little over $100 covering the period from 4/2017 to date. No big deal – I can only assume that Rover is attempting to hold my 19+ minerals by production on a very old lease.

I am not sure what your specific question is, but it sounds like you may have an argument that the lease expired. If you want to push it, I suggest a good NM oil and gas attorney. As you probably know, this interest is on the Central Basin Platform, not as prolific as the Delaware Basin, but there is certainly going to be some value to re-leasing the mineral interest.