In this episode we answer listener questions submitted by Dave, Bill, Monica, Mary, Katie, Kelly, and David. We cover a lot of ground including: surface use agreements, helium, leasing, dormant mineral rights, how to read a legal description, orphan wells, prior period adjustments vs. recoupment, how to calculate your net acreage and decimal interest in a well, and more!
Some of the questions in this episode are addressed in my Mineral Management Basics online course, from how to read a legal description, how to perform a title search, and how to identify nearby oil and gas activity.
Thanks again to everyone who left a review or who submitted a listener question! If you have a question about your minerals or royalties, you can send it to feedback@mineralrightspodcast.com and who knows we might just answer it on the air!
If this has been helpful, please take a moment and leave us an honest rating & review on Apple Podcasts. This feedback really helps keep us going and helps make sure that we are putting out content that is tailored to your needs.
Listener Question #1
Do surface estate owners receive any type of royalties for a producing helium well. Producers are going to start seismic testing for Helium in April on my land in Northeast Arizona. The Railroad had the mineral rights but they sold them to the Navajo tribe and someone else I can’t remember who. I do not have any mineral rights. If they find Helium on my property they say they can just move in and drill. Do I have rights and do I receive compensation?
Can you let me know if and when my question is addressed on the pod cast?
Thanks
Dave
Listener Question #2
Hello Matt?
My wells are producing at the end of my primary 5 year term. I was wondering since my lease is extended, is it common to not get the reward money on the extension? According to my lease the lessee will pay the lessor an amount equal to the initial consideration given for the execution. According to owner relations, no lease will give a reward if the wells are producing. Royalties will continue though.
Thanks in advance
Bill
Listener Question #3
Dear Matt,
I was skimming the article regarding dormant mineral interests.
My Father In Law passed in 1999 in North Dakota. His mother had mineral interests in Valley County, Montana.
I can see it in her will, although it wasn’t part of the property listed in my Father In Law’s will, as it was probated in ND.
Anyway, just wondering if you have a mineral rights attorney recommendation for the state of Montana to sort out these mineral acres? Or possibly a resource for that?
I do see that Montana has the 20-year thing going on.
thx!
Monica
Listener Question #4
Dear Mr. Sands,
I have a property description question. Our inherited mineral rights in Texas are described in metes and bounds but we continue to receive leases referring to abstracts or units (Sangster Gas Unit, for example, in Harrison County, TX). How can we convert from metes and bounds to the new property descriptions?
Thanks,
Mary
Listener Question #5
Hi Matt and Justin,
I listened to episode 213 this morning and was really excited to hear about The Well Done Foundation. I work in a disaster relief nonprofit on the fundraising side, but have long dreamed about combining my passion for mineral rights and nonprofit work. Do you know of any other nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations that work in the mining space? I intend on reaching out to WDF to see if they need any volunteer work for my specialty (research), but figured it was worth asking about other endeavors you might know of.
I genuinely love your podcast. I do not own any mineral rights, but I am a painfully curious person, and had wondered about subsurface rights for a long time. I read the book “Uranium” by Tom Zollner (an excellent read) and reached out to him to ask about uranium specific rights. After that, I just started seeking anyone who was writing or talking about mineral rights, and found your podcast. Thank you so much for the work you do, and all the research you put into it!
Katie
Listener Question #6
Hello Matt:
Thank you for the update. What is the difference between recoupment and prior period adjustments?
I look forward to seeing you at the NARO convention in October.
Kind Regards,
Kelly
Listener Question #7
Hello Matt,
I just found your podcast a week or two ago. I’m looking forward to listening to more of the episodes. So far, I’ve listened to a couple and have enjoyed them. One of the podcasts I listened to was #3 on how to calculate NRI. It generated some questions.
If you find this too much, feel free to only respond to what you think appropriate. No worries.
- You’ve shared that to get the NMA, you take the interest from the deed and multiply by the acres of the tract from the deed. This number is then used in combination with the DSU and the royalty rate. I’ve seen situations where a lease is leasing something different than what the deed states (less acreage). In this instance, I gather you’d re calculate the NMA based on the lease acreage rather than the deed acreage. Is this correct? This seems logical, but your podcast has the order as NMA/DSU * royalty rate (from lease). In this case, I’d be getting the NMA from the lease and going backwards to the DSU. Hope this makes sense.
- This question is not strictly NRI related. I have a lot of situations where the lease is taken by a broker or landman. In these instances, how do I find the company that the minerals were leased to? If I had lived in this space for past decades, I gather I’d find this out when I got the DO. In my case, I’ve started to get interested in royalties that my father owns. I’m trying to piece together things that date back to the 40’s and 50’s. My dad has a lot of information, and I suppose I can try and link a DO to a lease based on date and legal description; but this seems a bit haphazard to me.
- In reviewing my grandfather’s deeds, I often see what I consider random interests; but was wondering if there is some higher logic to it that I’m missing. I randomly pulled up 4 deeds for purposes of this email. The mineral interests conveyed were 5/24, 5/96, 1/32, 11/256.
- I’ve seen situations where my grandfather purchases a mineral interest, then sells it back to the owner, then it comes back to him. This seems bizarre to me; but I’m wondering if there’s some reason that this sequence of transactions would be performed? I can probably find some examples of this to send; but thought I’d just test the broader question.
Thanks,
David
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Mineral Rights Education
- Mineral Management Basics Online Course
- National Association of Royalty Owners
- 1-on-1 Coaching with Matt
Books
- Never Split the Difference by former FBI Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss is THE book on negotiation.
- Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner
How to Negotiate a Lease / Surface Use Agreement
Helium
Dormant Minerals / Montana Resources
Orphan Wells / Well Done Foundation
- MRP 213: What Mineral Owners Need to Know about Well Plugging and Abandonment
- MRP 145: Abandoned and Orphan Wells with Professor Jim Crompton
- Well Done Foundation
Unclaimed Royalties
What Happens if My Lease Gets Sold (or if I Signed a Lease with a Company that is not the Operator)?
How to Calculate Your Interest in a Well
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