PaunchyPirate
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I don't have any particular questions on the topic. And there are other forums where the in-depth details can be discussed better, probably (which I'm using). But I thought it might be a topic that some here want to learn about, ignore, think about, make suggestions, discuss, whatever.
My father's side of the family is from West Virginia. Oil was discovered in the area where his family evolved from (Wetzel, Tyler, and Doddridge Counties) in the late 1800s and leases were generated for the mineral rights. It was very common for the mineral rights to be sold separately from the surface land. So over time, the mineral rights got bought and sold and split up a lot via multiple generations of heirs. All separately from the land parcel sitting above the minerals.
As the "responsible" son of my mother, I am left to sort out this mess for my immediate family. Mom inherited the mineral rights from my Dad. She is still alive, but aged 87 and living in an assisted living facility with a failing memory. Dad had inherited separately from both his mother's and his father's side of the family. Oh, and no one in this family really has been good at keeping the written documents of the history. I have a hodge hodge of papers, mostly tax records and check stubs, a couple lease documents, and other miscellaneous stuff. I finally sat down over the last week and organized the documents I do have and wrote up a summary document ordered over time. I've made pretty good progress with one of the leases -- it goes back to an original 1898 lease. Mom successfully still gets a royalty check now and then from this lease, but over time it has dwindled down to a small amount -- usually less than $20 per year. It was $5 in 2024. At its peak, Mom and Dad got about $1200 one year from this lease.
Mom also just signed another lease in 2024 with a company that contacted her about the mineral rights she owned for another parcel we were not aware of. This was from my grandfather's family. Mom's fractional share earned her a $25,000 signing bonus and will get an 18% royalty (on some mysterious amount) if/when they start producing oil/gas from the well(s). They don't usually drill straight down any more. They drill down and then angle the path in a long horizontal path through the Marcellus shale rock formation that holds the oil/gas they want. So, we're anxious to see how much this nets her over time. Several months after signing, they notified us that they had "pooled" our rights with others in the area to support the horizontal drilling going on. They will be passing through only a corner of her parcel with the horizontal drilling. So it may not be a whole lot of money for her. They told us to expect drilling this summer. Royalty payments usually follow several months or more afterwards.
I have found one other lease that falls off the face of the earth in the early 1980s. It appears to have been merged into a pooling agreement, then I have no papers that indicate anything. My grandmother may or may not have received any royalties from it. BUT, now years later, they are drilling there again in the deeper Marcellus shale. So I'm puzzled why my family has not been getting money from that one. I've started researching that on the MineralRightsForum. Perhaps our original lease was only for upper level of the rights. I have no idea.
And then yet another lease is held in limbo since 2009 because the company that we signed the lease with keeps paying us $30 per year so they can eventually drill if/when they want to.
My family never used an attorney to negotiate any of these lease (with one exception). So they are not good leases overall. Mom and I hired an attorney in WV to negotiate the lease for the one where she got $25,000 bonus. He successfully got us much better terms (higher bonus, higher royalty and more favorable terms. Money well spent.
I intend to hire him again in the near future to help me figure out some of this mess. There are some county tax records that are still in my father's name (7 years after his death) that I need to figure out how to get changed.
Anyway, this is just a ramble of what I've been woking on this week. If anyone has similar life experiences, feel free to chime in.
My father's side of the family is from West Virginia. Oil was discovered in the area where his family evolved from (Wetzel, Tyler, and Doddridge Counties) in the late 1800s and leases were generated for the mineral rights. It was very common for the mineral rights to be sold separately from the surface land. So over time, the mineral rights got bought and sold and split up a lot via multiple generations of heirs. All separately from the land parcel sitting above the minerals.
As the "responsible" son of my mother, I am left to sort out this mess for my immediate family. Mom inherited the mineral rights from my Dad. She is still alive, but aged 87 and living in an assisted living facility with a failing memory. Dad had inherited separately from both his mother's and his father's side of the family. Oh, and no one in this family really has been good at keeping the written documents of the history. I have a hodge hodge of papers, mostly tax records and check stubs, a couple lease documents, and other miscellaneous stuff. I finally sat down over the last week and organized the documents I do have and wrote up a summary document ordered over time. I've made pretty good progress with one of the leases -- it goes back to an original 1898 lease. Mom successfully still gets a royalty check now and then from this lease, but over time it has dwindled down to a small amount -- usually less than $20 per year. It was $5 in 2024. At its peak, Mom and Dad got about $1200 one year from this lease.
Mom also just signed another lease in 2024 with a company that contacted her about the mineral rights she owned for another parcel we were not aware of. This was from my grandfather's family. Mom's fractional share earned her a $25,000 signing bonus and will get an 18% royalty (on some mysterious amount) if/when they start producing oil/gas from the well(s). They don't usually drill straight down any more. They drill down and then angle the path in a long horizontal path through the Marcellus shale rock formation that holds the oil/gas they want. So, we're anxious to see how much this nets her over time. Several months after signing, they notified us that they had "pooled" our rights with others in the area to support the horizontal drilling going on. They will be passing through only a corner of her parcel with the horizontal drilling. So it may not be a whole lot of money for her. They told us to expect drilling this summer. Royalty payments usually follow several months or more afterwards.
I have found one other lease that falls off the face of the earth in the early 1980s. It appears to have been merged into a pooling agreement, then I have no papers that indicate anything. My grandmother may or may not have received any royalties from it. BUT, now years later, they are drilling there again in the deeper Marcellus shale. So I'm puzzled why my family has not been getting money from that one. I've started researching that on the MineralRightsForum. Perhaps our original lease was only for upper level of the rights. I have no idea.
And then yet another lease is held in limbo since 2009 because the company that we signed the lease with keeps paying us $30 per year so they can eventually drill if/when they want to.
My family never used an attorney to negotiate any of these lease (with one exception). So they are not good leases overall. Mom and I hired an attorney in WV to negotiate the lease for the one where she got $25,000 bonus. He successfully got us much better terms (higher bonus, higher royalty and more favorable terms. Money well spent.
I intend to hire him again in the near future to help me figure out some of this mess. There are some county tax records that are still in my father's name (7 years after his death) that I need to figure out how to get changed.
Anyway, this is just a ramble of what I've been woking on this week. If anyone has similar life experiences, feel free to chime in.
