My wife recently inherited mineral rights and we are looking for any information that can help us understand what she now owns, what we need to do next to insure we get paid, and any advice as to recent and potential upcoming production activity in the area.
She inherited a 1/5th interest in the following.
An undivided interest of 7/50 of all of the Oil, gas and other minerals royalties of 3/16 in and under and that may be produced from the following described lands situated in Carter County, State of Oklahoma, to-wit:
Lot No. (1) and the Northeast Quarter of the Northwest Quarter and the West Half of the Northeast Quarter and the Northeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of the Northwest Quarter, Section 30, Township 3 South, Range 2 West.
Any information provided will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your reply. What will County register of deeds tell me when I contact them? Is that to check if the title is correct? I’m expecting to begin receiving payments because the trustee of the trust that owned them was receiving the payments and he said they would be sending them to my wife in the future. Ownership was conveyed with a quit claim deed. No probate was done. I’m guessing that is because a trust owned the mineral rights.
If it hasn’t already been done, you should work with an oil and gas attorney to make sure the ownership documents are in your wife’s name with a current address.
You will need this for two things:
The currently producing well operators will likely ask for
something like this to change payment to your wife.
Any future leasing companies will be able to find you.
There are some producing wells in these areas, the
Doc Brown wells operated by Kingery Drilling, and some older
wells(Times Square, Meddors, Tony) operated by Keith F Walker Oil and Gas LLC. Hopefully you can contact these operators and they will tell you what they need to start sending
royalty payments to you and your wife.
Keep asking questions here, as there are many good people who read and respond. It will take a little work, but it looks like
this should provide something.
She may need to get a copy of the trust documents for her records. The current operator is Keith F Walker Oil & Gas Company for the vertical wells. Avalon Operating LLC for the horizontal wells. She will need to contact each of them to get into pay status. Each company may have their own requirements for title documents. Also, she needs to file her name and address and description of the acres with the recorder of deeds in Carter County.
Did the quit claim deed have her name as a beneficiary of the trust? The operators have to have proof that she inherited her portion. The county courthouse is the official repository.
Keep in mind that you only get production according to where your acres are in relation to the spacing of the well. The horizontals are usually at 640, but the verticals can be less depending upon the depth and product. The permits and completions generally have the spacing amounts on them.
Bernett1, you don’t have to file your name and address, but it might be helpful to a future landman who is trying to locate the beneficiaries of the trust.
Also, interesting to note the discrepancy between OTC and OCC for the horizontal Doc Brown wells in 30-3S-2W. OTC shows the operator as Avalon, but OCC says it is Kingery.
OCC 1073 files seem to indicate Avalon was the operator two
operators ago, so my guess is the OCC is more up to date.
The situation is often reversed, with the OTC showing and knowing a well is plugged and abandoned but the OCC still shows it as active. Like most things on the internet, you have to take them all with a grain of salt.
Bernett1. If you are new to minerals click “Mineral Help” above to get a good primer. Also keep in mind that that your estate planning attorney should incorporate the minerals into your plan. Too often these are neglected causing avoidable delay and expense.
This post is not legal, investment or tax advice, it is for discussion purposes only. Reading or responding to this post does not create an attorney-client relationship.
