How can a heir find out if there are royalties in suspense and how long can funds be held in suspense ?
Call the operator with the well data, lease name, legal description, etc. and inquire. If you have a copy of the lease you believe you are an heir of, that would help too.
Kitchen said:
Call the operator with the well data, lease name, legal description, etc. and inquire. If you have a copy of the lease you believe you are an heir of, that would help too.
Thanks, but what I have are mineral deeds & royalty deeds. I looked RRC web site an it appears there has been activity in some areas the deeds cover. I'm new at this ,so I'm probably not getting all the info I could , if I knew what I was doing.
Since you have information that leads you to believe you have production that includes your property, use the RRC data to get the operator's contact information and call them.
In a similar situation, I'm helping a friend who an operator refuses to pay royalties to. They keep telling her that her property is not pooled or producing. We even sent them a copy of the pooling certificate (that includes her tract) and they still deny her payments.
You can get that additional information on wells that you believe are on your property through the RRC. Check the drilling permits, pooling certificates, and the plats to see what parcels were included.
Kitchen said:
Since you have information that leads you to believe you have production that includes your property, use the RRC data to get the operator's contact information and call them.
In a similar situation, I'm helping a friend who an operator refuses to pay royalties to. They keep telling her that her property is not pooled or producing. We even sent them a copy of the pooling certificate (that includes her tract) and they still deny her payments.
You can get that additional information on wells that you believe are on your property through the RRC. Check the drilling permits, pooling certificates, and the plats to see what parcels were included.
Thanks for your reply. I'll work thru this. You' d think as big a part of the Texas economy that oil & gas are that there would be one place you could go to get info on anything and everything having to do with all interest in a well or property.
The RRC and public records (deeds, leases, etc.) are available, albeit not always online, and and not always user friendly. Some places are easier to search than others. It really depends on the county in question. Tracking the ownership of minerals / royalties is difficult and expensive for local governments to do. Unlike Kansas, most Texas counties that I am aware of do not even tax mineral interests for the fact that it is too expensive to keep track of the ownership. They merely tax the royalty interest, where they can get a copy of the division orders from the operator and just tax the people listed who are paid royalties. The RRC keeps track of the permits, production, operating, and not so much the record of ownership. However, the RRC does have some valuable information available in their permits - especially ones that have pooling certificates and plats imaged.
I think after seven years in Texas the suspense royalties have to be escheated (turned over) to the State of Texas Comptroller's Office Unclaimed Funds. Try searching this Web site: https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/up/Search.jsp. I once found some unclaimed funds belonging to a woman I wanted to lease in the amount of about $5,000! That sure helped with the lease negotiations.