Reversionary clauses

General Mineral Rights Discussion
1

Hi everyone! Does anybody have any experience on how reversionary clauses work?

Here’s a quick scenario. Sellers sold all the surface rights along with 75% of the mineral rights to buyer, but added a 25% reversionary clause for 30 years, or as long as there was production. Five years later, both buyer and seller enter into an oil and gas lease and production lasted for nearly 50 years.

As the years passed, both buyer and seller died, and the 75% passed to the buyer’s heir and the 25% passed to their seller’s heir who died as well, so 25% passed on to his heir since there was still production.

My question is: After the production ended (wells plugged and abandoned) who should be conveyed the 25% minerals, the heirs of the buyer or the heir of the heir of the seller?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this!

2

Depends on the actual language of the document creating the split interest and the document(s) conveying the 75% interest.

Most of the time, from the situation that you described, the successors of the buyer will be entitled to the revisionary interest, but the caveat is the actual language contained in the documents and the factual situation that created the determinable fee.

As to conveying the 25% mineral interest, if the interest has been extinguished, they have nothing to convey. The reversion is instantaneous.