MRP 320: Listener Questions February 2026

You are currently viewing MRP 320: Listener Questions February 2026

MRP 320: Listener Questions February 2026

In this episode, we answer questions submitted by Judy, Mike, Douglas, Gregg, Celeste, and Mike. We break down tax strategies for inherited minerals, what to do when you discover missing royalty payments from years ago, including statute of limitations issues and how operator changes complicate recovery efforts. You’ll hear a success story from a listener who found $375 in unclaimed royalties using my free guide that I send to all subscribers to my email list (fill out the form at the bottom of the page if you aren’t already a subscriber!). We walk through the process for verifying whether a “make good” royalty payment is accurate using publicly available production data. We discuss the nuances involved with older leases that are held by production by vertical wells when new horizontal drilling is just around the corner. Finally, we wrap up with our take on how one mineral owner forecasts future income from 800 wells using decline curve analysis. Whether you’re new to managing minerals or have been doing this for years, this episode provides practical, actionable guidance you can apply to your own situation.

As before, many of the questions in this episode are covered in more depth in my Mineral Management Basics online course, including how to read a legal description, perform a title search, identify nearby oil and gas activity, and determine whether you should be getting paid on a well. 

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!

The sponsor for this episode is SS&C MineralWare:

MineralWare is the leading asset management platform trusted by thousands of mineral rights owners for managing minerals, royalties, and non-operated working interests. Know in seconds where your leases are, what’s active, what acreage is open for lease, and if you are getting paid what you’re owed. See a demo today by visiting mineralware.com.

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Listener Question #1

Thanks for your note.  I inherited mineral and gas and oil royalties.  I need to protect some for income tax purposes.  What is the best way.  It is not a business. 

Have a blessed day🌷

Judy

Listener Question #2

Hi Matt, really appreciate your podcast and information they provide.  I’m reviewing some mineral royalty interest in Colorado, and noting missed production payments that extend back more than 8 years, is there a statute of limitations related to mineral interest payments?  If you can point me to a podcast that covers Colorado mineral rights case law or statute of limitations discussions I would appreciate it.  Also wondering, if the current operator is not the operator at the time the missed production payments occurred, would the current operator be still liable?

Your thoughts are appreciated!

Mike

Listener Question #3

Thank you Matt, This sure works.  I was able to apply for many claims totaling $375.00.

Wow.

Thank you,

Douglas
This email was in reference to one of the automated emails that I send to subscribers to my free email list.  In that email I walk you step by step how to find any missing royalty payments that were escheated (handed over) to the state to administer.  If you aren’t already a subscriber, tap or click on the “Subscribe now” button or fill out your information on the form at the bottom of the page.

Listener Question #4

Hi Matt,

An oil company who hasn’t made a payment since at least 2009 on 2 wells in Brazos county TX at  property that has produced over 51,000 barrels since 1994 has finally decided to make good on the past due payments but claim they owe $1,038.00 for 2009 to the present. Does this even sound realistic?

Gregg

Listener Question #5

I am a mineral owner and dealing with “Held by Production” from old leases on shallow gas wells in OH. Some of the wells are no longer in production and others have some production. Not getting royalty checks, and one of the leases was a pooled arrangement with other landowners around our property.  Now I’m getting ready for deep well drilling. 

Celeste

Listener Question #6

Hi Matt,

This is just a quick note to let you know I do try to forecast royalty income for a family trust of about 800 currently producing assets – mostly in ND.  These assets have entered production at various points in time over the past 20 years or so.  Our interests in each asset is small, but somewhat substantial (to us).  Some represent older, declining wells; while others are newer wells.  The family inherited these assets about 3.5 years ago and I have been developing spreadsheets to help project current/future income by attempting to project both revenue and pricing using data/information obtained online from the ND Mineral Resources website for actual/historical production of our assets and EIA/The Economy Forecast Agency for future pricing projections.  I have set my spreadsheets/workbook calculation so that our data matches to the data from the ND website (using API numbers) and pricing websites which I copy/paste into separate monthly spreadsheets within my workbooks. 

I develop decline curve estimates for our assets in total (decided not to go through the expense/effort/time to attempt to calculate/total 800 individual calculations) by using the historical production data since 2016 from the ND website for all our assets and comparing the total annual production for both points in time to develop a decline rate based on a RATE calculation formula.  To be a little more conservative, I then blend that with an average decline rate for the Bakken which I found online to develop a decline rate to project future annual production for the total trust assets.

Income is then projected forward using the available pricing for each time period and the production which is estimated by applying the “global” decline rate I calculate for the asset block to the latest 12 months of production.  

I have found the biggest variation in my projections for future revenue comes not from the production projection, but from the variation in the pricing from year/year, month/month, day/day.  I have only been doing this for 2-3 years so don’t have a lot of data to rely on, but generally find variation from my production projections of less than 10% which seems acceptable to the family at this time.  

I would be interested in your opinion of this methodology and/or means to improve accuracy without having to incur costs or more work effort to improve the accuracy.  Thank you for your podcasts – I have learned and continue to learn a lot from your experiences.

Mike

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Mineral Rights Education

Taxes

How to Make Sure You are Getting Paid Correctly

Forecasting Royalties

Inheritance

Mineral Rights Research

Check out the free form letter I’ve created for you to contact your operator about late or missing royalty payments.

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Thanks again – until next time!

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