I recently inherited two royalty interests in Creek County, OK. with Sunco, but the operator is listed as Krumme Oil Company. I have never heard anything about this at all from my father, but the documents were in his briefcase and I checked with the country records and I guess I still own them since we were both on the documents. I have absolutely no idea about any of this and I was wondering how to proceed with updating my information and where to inquire about potential payments?
Welcome to the forum. Sunoco is a transportation firm. They may not even be the current one. If you list the section, township and range of the interests, we can tell you who is the current operator if it is not longer Krumme. You would need to contact the current operator to get the change in owner status and royalties taken care of. You said you inherited. Have you filed your name and address and probate documents with the clerk of records in Creek county?
I’d be glad to help in anyway.
First thing is the lease still active and what the status of the wells are (meaning, shut in, producing, equipped, etc.).
If I had the legal description, I can help you look that up (Section, Township, Range).
The lease to the operator has an expiration date, which is indefinite past that date as long as the operator is producing the wells. If the operator does not produce a period of a year after lease expiration, then the lease is thereby no longer valid. If you do not have an active operator, you then have the ability to find one. As the mineral owner, you enjoy a royalty with no out of pocket cost for field development. Typically in the area range from 12.5 to 18.75% of the production revenue off the top.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has a website you can look up the well status’. If your lease is no longer active, you may want to tour the locations if you can or have someone to do it for you to inventory your wells.