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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 30, 2012 at 13:25

Excepting the possibility that you own a very large, contiguous acreage, you will not have the ability to get someone to drill your property, Brenda.  If you wish to maintain your mineral estate all you have to do is reserve your minerals when you sell your surface.

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Permalink Reply by Benedumtreesoilwell on June 1, 2012 at 4:25

So if you DID own a considerable amount of acres with a possible 4000' lateral,  You could perhaps talk to a oil company and be taken seriously about having them drill your acreage?  And If you perhaps had drilling logs showing there is hydrocarbons under the ground in three formations? lol  Just saying I have all these lol.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 1, 2012 at 4:48

You could offer your mineral rights as a Working Interest to a company capable of drilling a well.  But what kind of well?  The fraternity of horizontal drillers is relatively small so not any company is a candidate depending on depth.  A conventional reservoir that could be economically produced with vertical wells would be a more likely scenario to attract a capable small independent.  The real challenge is selling the "prospect" if there is not existing near by development.  To do that you might have to find an independent geologist to build a case for a specific target and sell it to a company that he or she feels is a match.  The operator would provide the geologist with an Overriding Royalty Interest as payment.  This is obviously a very simplified description but GHS is not the place for a more detailed discussion.

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Permalink Reply by GoshDarn on May 31, 2012 at 20:26

Brenda, what Skip means is that TX mineral law is totally different than La. mineral law.

In other words, in TX you can keep your mineral rights in perpetuity (if you so choose) (i.e., if you actually do own the mineral rights in the first place, and that can be a big IF, too) . . . even after you sell the surface land and even if there is no drilling or no continuous O&G production.

Severed minerals.

Whereas in La., the surface buyer/owner will thus reclaim (so to speak) the minerals per a 10-year prescription window if the mins are held back and then there is no drilling or production.   

 

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