Blog
Plain-English articles on what mineral rights are, how they get separated from the surface, what the county land records will and will not show, and how to read a recorded reservation, written by the team that produces the reports.
A horizontal lateral runs through four tracts that were never pooled. The operator divides production by footage, and whether that binds an owner who never signed is still being argued.
Read articleTwo perfectly ordinary deeds written decades apart can promise more minerals than ever existed. The rule decides who absorbs the shortfall, and it is usually not the buyer.
Read articleLegal title stays with the seller until the price is paid and equitable title moves on signing, so the county index may show no sign of the buyer at all.
Read articleBoth are carved out of the working interest, both behave unlike a royalty, and a recorded conveyance will not tell you whether either one has been paid out yet.
Read articleA term interest reverts automatically when it runs out and nobody files anything. The index keeps showing the holder for decades, and the record misleads by omission.
Read articleMost reservations predate the industry entirely, so whether uranium went with the minerals turns on a sentence written before anybody wanted the substance.
Read articleNavigability decides who owns the bed, and navigability is a legal test about the water at statehood rather than about whether a boat fits on it today.
Read articleOil and gas belong to whoever lawfully produces them, even where they migrated. What the county record establishes about that, and the question it cannot reach.
Read articleA depleted reservoir used to store gas is being sold as a container rather than a source. Whether an old severance carried that right varies by state and by wording.
Read articleEach county index covers its own ground and nothing else. A complete search of one county is a complete answer about part of your tract, and it reads identically.
Read articleAn old reservation of oil, gas and other minerals may or may not have taken the salt with it. Why the answer changes at the state line, and what a search can establish.
Read articleNotice runs off the operator filing and the county index, so an interest that never reached the index becomes an owner nobody tells. How the gap opens and what closes it.
Read articleHolding the surface for decades generally does not win the minerals underneath it. Why severance stops the clock, and what a county search can and cannot report.
Read articleA plugged well is a closed hole, not a released lease. What the operator files, what the state keeps, and why an old lease with no recorded release still clouds a sale.
Read articleA conservation easement binds the person who granted it. Whether it reaches the minerals turns on one date, and that date usually sits a century back in the chain.
Read articleA disposal well takes produced water from a whole area, which makes it a traffic problem as much as a subsurface one. What is recorded and what sits with the regulator.
Read articleThe contract that runs a well is mostly not in the county. What a memorandum discloses, which related filings travel with it, and what to ask the operator for.
Read articleA perpetual royalty and a production payment look similar and are treated very differently. Which interests are real property, where the exchange breaks, and what to document.
Read articleA severed mineral interest is property of the estate whether or not anybody scheduled it. Where the case file sits, why the county index never flags it, and what to pull.
Read articleA spouse who owns nothing on paper may still have to sign. Where that requirement comes from, why the mineral estate is treated differently, and how the gap gets cured.
Read articleWhether a mortgage reaches the minerals, what a severance recorded before the loan does to the lender, and why an operator asks the bank for a subordination before drilling.
Read articleIn coal country an old deed can waive the right to have your ground stay where it is. Where that language sits in the chain, and what a records search can and cannot settle.
Read articleA geophysical permit buys the right to survey for a few weeks, not to drill. Who has to sign one on a severed tract, what usually gets recorded, and what a search can confirm.
Read articleWhy a severed coal estate and a severed gas estate can both claim the methane, how the states split on the answer, and what the deed wording has to be read for.
Read articleWhat a mineral title opinion is, who writes one, how the abstract from a records search feeds it, and why present ownership is a conclusion the search itself cannot reach.
Read articleWhat an NPRI holder actually owns, the leasing and bonus rights that stay behind with the mineral owner, how the fractions compound, and what a search can establish.
Read articleWhat a general warranty, a special warranty and a quitclaim mineral deed each promise about title, how after acquired title changes the answer, and what the record can show.
Read articleHow a public project reaches a severed mineral estate, which interests can claim a share of the award, and why the ownership work has to come before the negotiation.
Read articleWhat gets deducted between the wellhead and the sale, why two states can read the same lease differently, and which documents actually answer the question.
Read articleWhy trust and restricted title sits outside the county index, where those records are actually kept, and what a county mineral search can usefully establish near a reservation.
Read articleHow a shut in payment keeps an oil and gas lease in force with no production, the conditions the clause carries, and what the county record can and cannot settle.
Read articleA life tenant holds the interest now and a remainderman holds it later, and production consumes the asset. Who signs a lease, who gets paid, and what the record shows.
Read articleA public road usually sits on an easement, so the minerals beneath it stay with the abutting owner. What the dedication says, and where the strip goes when it is vacated.
Read articleA mineral estate can be split by depth as well as by fraction, leaving two owners stacked on one tract. How the line gets drawn, and why the index will never flag it.
Read articleHelium comes up with the gas and almost no deed mentions it by name, so ownership turns on wording written when it was worthless. What the record settles and what it cannot.
Read articleLithium leasing has reached tracts whose mineral estate was severed decades ago, and brine adds a water law question on top. What the record settles and what it cannot.
Read articleAn override is carved out of the lease rather than the mineral estate, so it pays like a royalty and dies with the lease. How they are created and how to find them of record.
Read articleCarbon storage projects need the empty space inside the rock, and old severance deeds almost never mention it. What the county record can settle about pore space, and what it cannot.
Read articleTwo oil and gas leases can sit in the index on the same tract at once. What a top lease is, how to read the dates, and why the record alone cannot tell you which one controls.
Read articleWhether the minerals were severed, what fraction the seller can actually convey, whether a lease is outstanding, and how to fit the search inside an inspection period.
Read articleWhether geothermal resources travel with the minerals or the surface, what the deed language does, where a geothermal interest appears in the record, and what counsel decides.
Read articleCo-owners who cannot agree have limited routes, and dividing a mineral estate in kind is rarely one of them. What the record establishes about the parties first.
Read articleA quiet title suit runs on a list of everyone with a possible claim, and the record is where that list starts. What a search delivers, and what still has to be traced.
Read articleA general mineral reservation may or may not reach sand, gravel, and limestone, and the answer turns on the wording and on state law. What the recorded deeds show.
Read articleA conveyance into a trust or a company moves the interest out of family names and out of the index most people search. What the record shows, and what it cannot.
Read articleSuburban lots sit on land that was once a farm, and the minerals were often severed before the plat was drawn. What the record shows about a lot you own outright.
Read articleA tax sale of the surface does not automatically carry severed minerals, and a separately assessed mineral interest can be sold on its own. What the record shows.
Read articleWater and minerals are severed separately, held under different law, and recorded in different offices. What the county shows about each, and what it cannot.
Read articleA solar array covers the whole surface, and in most states the mineral estate is dominant. What the record shows before a renewables lease gets signed on severed land.
Read articleCoal, iron ore, and limestone were severed long before oil and gas leasing existed. Why the deed language matters more here, and how to scope the search.
Read articleMillions of acres carry a surface in private hands and a mineral estate reserved to the United States. What the county record proves, and what sits with the agency.
Read articleWhat a surface use agreement covers, who the parties really are, and which recorded documents to pull before a surface owner signs one with an operator.
Read articlePrimary and secondary terms, the clauses that hold a lease past its expiration, and why an old lease can sit unreleased in the county index for decades.
Read articleAn offer letter is not the document that conveys. What a mineral deed can take, what to gather from the record first, and what a search cannot tell a seller.
Read articleWhen royalty payments stop or never start, the cause is usually a gap in the recorded chain. Where the money sits, and how the record gets it released.
Read articleA division order tells an operator how to pay you. What the form actually is, what the decimal is built on, and the language worth reading before you sign it.
Read articleGross acres, net mineral acres, and net royalty acres are three different numbers. How a fraction shrinks through a chain, and what the record can support.
Read articleThe right to lease minerals can be owned separately from the right to be paid for them. What the executive right is, who holds it, and how the record shows it.
Read articleMost severed mineral estates start with one sentence in one deed. How reservation clauses work, what to read them for, and how to trace one through the chain.
Read articleA leasing offer in the mail is a signal, not a settled fact. What the letter tells you, the three clauses that decide the deal, and why ownership comes first.
Read articleWhy operators combine tracts into units, how that changes what a royalty owner is paid, and which records describe the unit your acreage was placed in.
Read articleSome states let an unused mineral interest be reunited with the surface. What usually counts as use, what the record shows, and why the conclusion is a legal one.
Read articleWhy one owner signs the lease and another only cashes the checks, how a royalty gets created, and how to tell the two apart in the recorded instruments.
Read articleA letter arrives about minerals in a county you have never visited. How interests pass at death, why the county record often shows nothing, and what to assemble before a search.
Read articleOne rents the right to drill for a term. The other sells the mineral estate permanently. How to tell which is which in the record, and why the granting language decides it.
Read articleHow one tract becomes two estates, what each owner may and may not do, why the mineral estate is usually dominant, and what the recorded instruments actually establish.
Read articleWhy your deed rarely answers the question, where subsurface ownership is actually written down, how far back a search has to reach, and what the record cannot settle.
Read articleCertified abstractors search the county land records against your parcel and report the mineral conveyances, reservations, and leases found of record, with a copy of every recorded instrument attached. Order online in minutes, or tell us about the parcel and we will help you pick the search term.
Questions? Call 877-848-5337 ext. 138 or send us a message