All,

I am trying to help out my MIL figure out if she is owed royalties on some properties in Martin County. She has a tax bill of 3 different leases and I see they are all producing, 2 of which are significant up to this point. Her husband passed away about 3 years ago and she has zero idea about what she owns outside of this bill.

I am not a landman by trade as I am just a simple reservoir engineer. I need some help figuring out exactly how much she owns in each survey block (potentially how many other mineral owner in the same blocks) and how to approach the operating company. She has had zero luck reaching someone to give her a straight answer.

If it's Apache, I can help.

Operator is Crownquest. Their website is not helpful.

Look on LinkedIn for a CrownQuest division order analyst and email them directly.

A couple hundred bucks to a good local attorney might be well spent.

SweaterVest said:

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Look on LinkedIn for a CrownQuest division order analyst and email them directly.

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I'll look it to that, thanks!

I might do that. Thanks.

I've been working with Steve Posnick and K C Thurman on some exhaustive title work out there. They have a strong working relationship with most operators and solved a major CrownQuest issue that would certainly have them well connected now.

Keith is at Brockett and McNeel and where I would start.

I live in the area and deal with crownquest pretty regularly. Let me go through my paperwork and I bet I can come up with the email for someone that deals with their division orders. Shoot me an email. username at hotmail.

What's his full name? I can do a quick records search in Winkler and email any recent deeds or oil and gas leases.

You are making it too complicated, by a factor of 100X. This is easy.

Look at copies of division orders. If you don't have a copy, ask Crownquest. They are one of the most responsive companies when it comes to division orders. Each month's royalty check will have this information on it. If you aren't receiving hard copies, you are probably getting the information through Oildex.

Division orders will show your ownership in the unit. You will have to do a simple math problem to extrapolate. Figure the royalty that Crownquest gives you, get the unit size and plat from RRC. If the unit carries over into two sections, you may have a tract participation. If it's an allocation well covering two existing units, there is an additional simple formula.

This is really basic stuff. I give these to my 6th grader to practice math and problem solving. Even an reservoir engineer can handle it.

Martin County is mostly Section and Block. Typically, the minerals will be uniform throughout the section. But they could be different by quarter-section or any other combination. Compare the plats of the two/three units you are in. Then compare the solution to the math problems you did earlier. You ought to be able to figure it out from that.

Also look at the lease that is being held by these units. Read the legal description. That will usually let you know if it's "all of Section 44", "E/2 of Section 44". or "northern 72 acres of Southwest Quarter of Section 44". That clue will help you figure your ownership. MIL have have all the minerals in that legal description or may be one of 50, but it will help you narrow it down.

Get the lease and the division orders. After that is should take about fifteen minutes.

If you can't figure it out, there is another solution. Call Crownquest and play dumb. Call division order lady and request a screen shot of the DOTO in those wells. You only want the small portion that discussed your MIL's interest and you don't care about anybody else in the well. Most companies will only do this is get rid of nuisance mineral owners, but some will do a favor for you.

Getting the answer as I described will tell you what Crownquest thinks you own. And that's probably good enough for most people.

But to confirm it for yourself, you would need a runsheet. Figure $5k for landman to do it correctly. You could also buy an abstract for $1k, but it will be full of holes.

Thanks for the steps. I had a good call with a landman within my company and got a similar path forward along with a specific contact to call and play dumb with.