AboutDavid B. McCall Expertise Questions regarding oil and gas exploration and production, the operation and management of oil and gas producing properties, and questions related to mineral ownership, title problems, and oil and gas leases.
Experience I am Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law in the state of Texas. I have more than 34 years of experience in the industry as both an in house attorney for major oil companies and as a partner in oil and gas firms. I am also a mineral owner and receive royalties from oil and gas production. I have extensive title examination experience, and have represented clients in many administrative and court proceedings.
Organizations State Bar of Texas, Texas Bar Foundation, and Austin Bar Foundation.
Publications Various state bar seminars on Oil and Gas matters.
Education/Credentials I have a business degree in marketing from McMurry University, 1971, and a JD degree from Texas Tech University in 1974, where I graduated 17th in my class. Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law in 1986.
Question My husband's family inherited some mineral interests in Montague County, TX
In 1979 when they got them there were leases on them. No one paid attention to them and the income disappeared.
I ran across one of the wells and it is plugged but I don't know how to research the other four.
Is it worth paying someone in Texas to find out where the interests are located and seeing if there is any activity in the area?
I have a list of the abstracts but I can't tell anything about where they are from the abstracts.
Could a company be operating the wells without our knowledge?
Thank you,
Debbie
Answer Hello Debbie. I think with a little work you can find most of the answers to your questions online. I would start by going to the Texas Railroad Commission Website at http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/. On the right hand side of the home page is a link to "online queries", where you will find a link to a Public GIS viewer (geographical information system). You can actually use this viewer to locate your property on an onlime map by using the abstract and survey numbers of your property. The map will show all of the wells located on the property, You can click on the wells and it will show you whether the wells are producing, have been plugged, etc. The viewer takes just a little bit of time to master but once you have it down you can find a lot of information.
You can also research these wells by using the API number for the well and inserting it into the map viewer.
Another place to check is the Tax Appraisal office of Montague County, Texas at http://www.montaguecad.org/. If the minerals are producing someone is being taxed on them and the records here will show that. If you haven't received any tax statements or royalties from these wells I would suspect that they are not produing and that the leases have expired. But you can check that out at the appraisal office.
Also, check out the unclaimed money section of the Texas Comptrollers office at http://window.state.tx.us/up/ to see if any money for the heirs is being sent there because a company lost track of you.
Finally, you can go to the deed records and run the grantor/grantee records to see if your leases were released, or assigned to another company, or for whatever information you can find. Running the records is not hard and I am sure the clerks would be more than happy to show you how to get started.
If none of this works for you let me know! Good luck Debbie!
