Termination of Overriding Royalty

Law & Legal
1

I see certain situations where a party was assigned an overriding royalty interest on leases from say 1948.

How does one know if the lease from 1948 still holds the property and thus beneficiaries remain entitled to the ORI?

Specifically, I am looking at two leases in Wichita County, Texas described as follows:

Lease #1

7/1/1948 between Mrs. Frances R. Grattan, A widow; Miss Lucy C. Roller, a feme sole; Mrs. Elizabeth Roller Pyle, jointly by her husband William Bottimore; Mrs. Annie Roller Pyle, joined by her husband Wilfrid Pyle; John E. Cannaday, Jr., sole surviving heir at law of Margaret Roller Merryman, deceased, and principal beneficiary named in her said Will and John E. Cannady, Jr. and Geo G. Grattan, III as administrators d.t.a.d.b.n. of the estate of Margaret Roller Perryman, herein called Lessor & Roy H. King herinafter called Lessee.

Block No. 3 out of the Oil & Gas Subdivision of the J. E. Roller Estate according to the plat of record in Plat Book 2, page 148 1/2 , Plat Records of Wichita County, Texas, Said Block No. 3 being partly out of the D. Matthews Survey, Abstract #671 and partly out of the Simpson-Holloway Survey, Abstract #493, and containing 20 acres.

Lease #2

7/1/1948 between Mrs. Frances R. Grattan, a widow; Miss Lucy C. Roller, a feme sole; Mrs. Elizabeth Roller Bottimore, joined by her husband William Bottimore; Mrs. Annie Roller Pyle, joined by her husband Wilfrid Pyle; John E. Cannaday, Jr., sole surviving heir at law of Margaret Roller Merryman, deceased, and principal beneficiary Named in her said Will and John E. Cannaday, Jr. and Geo. G. Grattan III as administrators c.t.a.d.b.n. of the estate of Margaret Roller Merryman, hereinafter called Lessor and Roy H. King hereinafter called Lessee.

All of Blocks No. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 of the oil and gas subdivision of the J. E. Roller Estate; Blocks Nos. 16, 17, 19 and 20 being out of the McKinney & Williams Survey,

Abstract #238; Blocks Nos. 18 and 21 being partly out of the D. Matthews Survey, Abstract #671, and partly out of the McKinney & Williams Survey, Abstract #238, and

Containing 120 acres

I appreciate any feedback as I don't really want to drive to Wichita County.

2

Start with the RRC website gis viewer and locate the various tracts by the abstract numbers. The look at wells and production history to see if there has been continuous production. You should get copies of the leases to see the depth limitations and pugh clauses. Look at the Assignment of overriding interest to see it has limitations, such are specific wellbores or acreage, or if it was on whole lease. You may find a release filed of records which would have been to the original lessors. Or trace the assignments out of original lessee. Many counties have records on-line. There may be subsequent leases, but the original lessors or heirs, filed of record on this acreage. TexasFile only has Wichita County from 1975 forward, but there may be another service that goes back farther.

3

I appreciate the feed back. I too looked at Texasfile.com noting limitations on how far back it went. Then went to courthousedirect.com noting they have no coverage of Wichita County.

What I do see from the GIS viewer is certain wells shown by single digit number and when clicked it refers to "commissioner hard copy" with no production data or information as to when it commenced.

I am searching for 1948. Is this something that personnel within the rail road commission can and will assist with?

4

the online files for wells are generally available online since 1993. some old wells that are still in operation will also have links to imaged records, but not the production information. if it isn't online now, there probably has been none since 1993. You can call the rrc and see if they can help you.

5

Generally when I see "commissioners hard copy" as the only result when you click on the well, that tells me the well is long since abandoned / plugged. Imaged records exist for wells from the 60s to current, so I would presume those wells are even older than that. If they were producing it would show you more results when you click on the well. Someone on here may correct me, but this has been my experience with the RRC GIS website / records.

Another avenue to research, you should check the State Comptroller Unclaimed Funds for the name(s) of the party who you believe owned the overriding interest and see if any funds are held by the state. If they have funds held, you may be able to get more information about who the operator was, lease name, well info, etc. And as of lately, I recommend checking the surrounding states Unclaimed Funds also, because some operators will send unclaimed funds to their domicile, which may differ from the state where the royalty was generated. The Supreme Court ruling Texas v New Jersey states the primary state for unclaimed funds should be the state of the last known address for the recipient. If the owner's last address was Florida, then the unclaimed funds are supposed to be sent to Florida, even if it was a royalty generated by production in Texas, by an operator with a domicile in Oklahoma. Clear as mud!

6

Can you tell me if an old well is plugged and abandoned that there still is horizontal and fracking interestin ? And if how do you tell which operators have operations as such?