Farm & Ranch Mineral Ownership Reports

Who owns the mineral rights under your land?

Mineral Brokers of Texas, Inc. can answer this question!

We can do for you what we do for the oil and gas industry – furnish a Mineral Ownership Report.

We are a petroleum land management company based in San Antonio with over 30 years of experience working with oil and gas companies. Our stock-in-trade is researching mineral title. Ask us for references. We are proud of our work product.

What Are You Buying Besides Dirt?

You may not be in the oil and gas business yet, but you could be in the future if you own land. If you are buying land, you need to know what mineral rights come with it. If you are selling land and can provide evidence showing who owns the mineral rights underneath the surface, you can satisfy the concerns of a potential buyer.

The mineral estate potentially could be worth many times the value of the surface. The mineral estate is superior to the surface estate. That means that the owner of the mineral estate can drill an oil well on your land even if it interferes with your use of the surface for farming, grazing or hunting.

As a buyer, you don’t want to unknowingly end up owning a tract of land with no royalty while having to deal with producing wells on your surface. At least be aware that these headaches are coming so that plans can be made.

Order a Mineral Ownership Report so you won’t be surprised down the line. You will be glad you did! So will your heirs, successors and/or assigns.

A Title Policy Does Not Cover Minerals

Mineral ownership is specifically excluded from Title Policies. Title insurance companies choose not to expose themselves to the risk. Interpretation of mineral and royalty reservations can be very complex. If mineral ownership analysis were easy and straightforward, the insurance companies would do it.

We don’t insure the mineral title either, but we do the research and can provide you with the recorded evidence of who owns the minerals and our assessment of any potential problems.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS DON’T RESEARCH MINERALS

Most real estate agents are unfamiliar with mineral and royalty issues. They only know what the seller tells them. Click on the link below : The Texas Real Estate Commission Sales Contract addendum entitled “ADDENDUM FOR RESERVATION OF OIL, GAS, AND OTHER MINERALS” (TREC 44-2) in Paragraph D, that states in bold lettering that the only way for a buyer to know the mineral ownership is by a full examination of the property by an attorney with expertise in this area.

You may not need a full legal analysis by an attorney of all of the title issues on each tract of land. You are just interested in determining the mineral and royalty ownership based on record title – and we can do that.

MINERAL AND ROYALTY RESERVATIONS

It is not unusual to find that minerals and royalties have been reserved in various amounts and under various terms. In some tracts the minerals are severed in perpetuity. On others, reversionary interests have been created. Many times tracts have passed under an individual’s Last Will and Testament where terms, conditions and amounts of interest are vague. Some interests pass under the Texas laws of descent and distribution and heirs must be identified and located.

Over the years, the wording and phrasing of mineral reservations have evolved. Since minerals and royalty may involve significant sums of money, there is a large body of law relating to reservation issues. The reservations may not be stated clearly.

Questions are:

• Who has the executory rights, the right to bind the land to the lease?
• Who gets the bonus consideration?
• If multiple parties own rights to the bonus, who gets what?
• What is the difference between a mineral interest and royalty interest?
• What is the difference between a 1/16 mineral reservation and a 1/16 royalty reservation?
• What does the reservation of 1/2 of the usual 1/8 royalty mean?
• What is a reversionary interest?
• When does the reversionary interest revert?

SURFACE USE MAY BE AT RISK

Texas law dictates that the mineral estate is dominant to the surface estate. Exploration and production operations may adversely affect your use and enjoyment of the land.

Questions are.

• When and where can the oil company drill?
• Where will they put the roads, drilling pads, slush ponds, tank batteries and pipelines?
• When, where and how many fence cuts?
• Who can come on your land?
• Can the oil company bring guns and hunt and fish on your land?
• How will oil operations affect your hunters?

PRODUCTION ISSUES

If you are fortunate enough to have your tract in production – or unfortunate in the case of a stripper well which is keeping you from a bonus payment – we can help review your lease terms, royalty receipts and division orders.

WHAT WE DO

We will provide a Mineral Ownership Report that gives our view of the vesting of record title of the mineral and royalty rights. We require a deposit and work on a day rate plus expenses.

Mineral Ownership Report

A Landman’s abstract restating the recorded mineral ownership history. Same caliber of report required by oil and gas companies, and includes:

• The complete chain of title from 1900 to the present.
• Copies of all recorded documents from County Clerk, including deeds, wills, probate proceedings, maps, easements, deeds of trust and leases.
• Research of District Clerk record for the past 50 years, looking for judgements affecting land and mineral ownership.
• The abstract is designed to support a listing of the present ownership of executive, mineral and royalty interests.

Oil and gas companies require this detailed report. The report can be costly, but it’s worth to you to know what you own, or, are buying.

You will have a Landman’s abstract supporting present ownership of the executive, mineral and royalty interests.

HOW WHAT WE DO CREATES VALUE FOR YOU

Mineral Brokers of Texas, Inc. produces a comprehensive Mineral Ownership Report that outlines in detail the status of ownership of the executive, mineral and royalty rights under a tract of land.

This Mineral Ownership Report includes an Abstract of Title from January 1, 1900 to the present day. An Abstract of Title is a complete history of a tract of land that includes copies of all documents that have been recorded in the office of the County Clerk. These would be deeds, wills and other probate proceedings, maps, easements and rights of way, deeds of trust and oil and gas leases. The indexes in the office of the District Clerk for the past 50 years are also reviewed, looking for lawsuits that affect the ownership of a tract of land.

Many families that have owned farm or ranch land have an ancestor that invested in an Abstract. If so, they have carefully stored the Abstract as a cherished piece of their family and land’s history. Once a family has invested in an Abstract they can update this history of their land over time but the foundation of this document stands and can be handed down through the generations.

When your family is approached to lease their land for oil and gas drilling, you will be confident, based on the detailed analysis of our Mineral Ownership Report, as to what percentage of the executive (right to sign a lease), mineral and royalty (production) rights you own under all tracts, including roads, that the oil companies may not be aware of. You will have copies of the deeds to support your mineral ownership. Additionally, sellers often inadvertently misrepresent the percentage of the minerals they are conveying when selling a tract of land. This report prevents you from paying too much for your new asset.

The information contained in a Mineral Ownership Report is what the oil and gas title attorneys use to prepare a Title Opinion, a highly detailed analysis of all issues affecting title to a piece of land. This Report is not a Title Opinion and does not provide the legal analysis but it does reflect what appears to be record title of the mineral interest in a tract of land, based on our research.   Oil and Gas Exploration Companies have paid millions of dollars in bonus money based on our Reports.

Please call Mineral Brokers of Texas, Inc. at 210-829-5707 to discuss the value of obtaining a Mineral Ownership Report, cost of our services and answer any questions you may have. We look forward to hearing from you either by phone or email at info@mineralbrokers.com.