Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mineral rights questions

You’re overthinking this. It’s only 5 acres. Move on with life.

Responded to your pm with my number, feel free to reach out.

Another quirk of mineral rights- they must be reclaimed every so often- I think about every 20 years or so by refiling with the county they are in. This happens because the mineral rights get passed down many times and either are forgotten by the heirs , their are no heirs, or the heirs don't care about the mineral rights. If they haven't been reclaimed in the required time frame you can claim the mineral rights by following some simple guidelines, but I can't remember exactly how that works. Our family owns mineral rights adjacent to the Bakken oil field in North Dakota and we went through this a few years ago.

I asked about Mineral Rights with both of my property's
1 here in Commyfornia
1 in Arizona
Both times it just about killed the deals.
Escrow could not find either one of them.

Latter on someone told me that when the Railroad was put in across the Country our Gooberment gave 100 miles each side of the Tracks to the Railroad for building the lines.

So if this is true and I have never verified it my self.
If you have a Rail line with in 100 miles of you property chances are the Railroad owns the Mineral Right.

The City of Redlands owns my Water Rights in Commyfornia.

Arizona did a good thing for the property owners in Arizona.
If you own a certain sized Property the Water Rights are yours.

So I own the Water Right for my own personal use in Arizona.

Other States may have different laws.

always keep your minerals and fight to get them if its not known. ive paid for multiple large acreages purchased just in leases, surface damages, and pipeline ROW. large as in 440 and 640 acres, paid in full within 5 years of purchase, and now just putting the extra in the bank.

my son bought 1 acre in north fort worth in 2000, he gets anywhere from 40 bucks to 800 bucks a month for the gas under him, and the well isnt even in sight of his property.

anyone who doesnt fight for mineral rights is a idiot

HNIC how do you fight for mineral rights when they have already been sold?

Don’t know that I’d worry much about it. In most residential developments, in town or out of town, someone has retained the minerals along the chain of title. Very few “residential” property owners have the minerals. I think there are typically restrictions on exploiting those minerals, relative to the interest of the owner of the surface rights.

What I am saying is that, yes a well may extract the natural gas under your house. From a well pad a mile away and a bore two miles deep. I don’t think anyone is going to be drilling vertical wells on 5 acre plots, but I’m a banker, not a land man.

Typically, title companies and title insurance policies address surface rights and access. As I recall, they don’t address minerals except perhaps to note that some deed 75 years ago reserved the minerals - and the mineral interest are then not addressed further.

The oil companies usually employ “land men” to research the records to find the owners of mineral interests, which they have to do before buying or leasing the minerals on a piece of property.

Ok, so I am really going beyond what I know on this. It probably varies by state. In ND, if heirs do not correctly file mineral deeds, those mineral interests can be deemed abandoned and the surface owner can go through a process to own the minerals.

That would be unusual if there is good possibility of the minerals actually being produced. Aunt Ethel’s kids in Florida are darn sure going to pay attention to her 1/4 mineral interest on 640 acres in Mountrail County, ND.

Maybe something similar applies where the OP is buying. That is something you can tackle later. If you like the property, buy it and don’t worry about minerals.

One more thing - if the current owner owns the minerals, you can always negotiate for those minerals to be included in the sale. Doesn’t mean you will get them, but it is something to negotiate. They seller probably knows if they have them of if they don’t.

The Courthouse Conveyance Records is a starting point.

You absolutely need to see the language on those rights, which could give someone the right to drill on that property (and take 3 or more acres to do it) and/or to place a pipeline across it, or even to use the structure below to store gas, etc. This is especially important with the other wells in the area. Even though a formation may be fully developed, there's a likelihood of another formation below that. They're drilling exploration wells over 10,000' near our camp - we never would have imagined that 20 years ago.

you dont. but if theres no mention of them in title that is when you can fight for them.

you will typically get paid for surface damages, which can add up fast. i wouldnt buy a place if i didnt at least get surface rights. a typical well pad and access road here in south texas will get you 60-100k with surface rights alone, plus a good water well and more gravel than you can use for your ranch roads when they are done. then (if you have surface rights) youll get paid by the "rod" for any pipelines they need to tie in production. it adds up fast, but not as fast as if you had the subsurface minerals. thats where you get your $$$$, negoiate your royaltys, etc.

i have heard of people offering the seller a little more for minerals, or offer full asking price in exchange for 50% royalty or whatever they negoitate

Not so good when the Saudis came here to AZ and bought up a bunch of farm land and got a bunch of leased land from the government to grow Alphalpha Hay in the middle of our desert because they were smart enough to outlaw growing it in their own desert because it takes so much water. They've basically sucked all the groundwater out of the ground for their hay and dried up all the neighboring farms water wells for miles and miles..

They've really got some dumb people running this state.

you dont. but if theres no mention of them in title that is when you can fight for them.

you will typically get paid for surface damages, which can add up fast. i wouldnt buy a place if i didnt at least get surface rights. a typical well pad and access road here in south texas will get you 60-100k with surface rights alone, plus a good water well and more gravel than you can use for your ranch roads when they are done. then (if you have surface rights) youll get paid by the "rod" for any pipelines they need to tie in production. it adds up fast, but not as fast as if you had the subsurface minerals. thats where you get your $$$$, negoiate your royaltys, etc.

i have heard of people offering the seller a little more for minerals, or offer full asking price in exchange for 50% royalty or whatever they negoitate[/quote

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Ya I heard about this and they threatened the new property purchasers with not letting them have their water rights because of what the middle easterners are doing.

We had some concerns up our way because of the new laws being tested but we are on a totally different Aquifer under our Community.

Anyone wanting to try and plant crops in the dry desert needs to have their brain tested.
But when Gooberment kick back come into play anything go's for the highest bidder.

Part of the buyers due diligence is to have an attorney do a title opinion on the property. This will tell you if there are easements and any other conditions that could affect the property. Any oil/gas exploration that might be considered can only occur after an agreement is reached with the land owner. The royalty owners have no say in surface damages unless the royalty owner is also the surface owner.
Do your due diligence and don't worry about a gas well being drilled outside your bedroom window. It won't happen.

Where I live in Arkansas the railroad companies that laid track own the mineral rights several miles either side of the old tracks.

If the seller owns the mineral rights, as a buyer, you can try to negotiate to buy them from the seller. You might be able to buy 100% of the minerals, or 0% or anywhere in between.
I bought some land in Ks in 2009. That land had been resold several times in the previous 10 years and each seller reserved a % of the minerals (oil) for a certain number of years into the future. One of those previous owners reserve expired in 2012, another in 2020, and the last one expires in 2025. So at this time, I own 75% of the land owner mineral rights and will own 100% in 2025.

They have tons of water problems in Arizona from North to South. It costs thousands to drill wells near the Flagstaff, Williams, Seligman area where a lot of little Homesteads are sold...The wells are pretty deep there and hard to get a good one....Could be pumping tons of money into a dry hole...

I think the Feds have also recently given Cali a bigger chunk of the water from the Colorado river too hosing AZ and Nevada..The Valley has grown so much in the past few years they are always concerned about water usage, but they let Saudis come here and suck up all the groundwater south of Phoenix for their hay? NUTS!!!

I researched and bought a couple of plots of land by Vernon, near Showlow. The best aquifer in the state is over that way and not very deep to drill a well, maybe 300 feet down in most places. Hopefully they don't screw up the rules really bad...Would like to build a cabin over that way someday..