FAQ's
What are mineral rights?
Mineral rights represent the legal rights to explore for and produce the
resources below the surface. In the petroleum industry, mineral rights can also
be referred to as "land."
What is a lease?
A formal agreement between two or more parties where the owner of the land
grants another party the right to drill and produce petroleum substances in
exchange for up front bonus payment, payment for surface damages (if
applicable), and a royalty for every product sold.
How are mineral rights different from surface rights?
Surface rights are the
legal rights to work on the surface of the land, and only pertain to ownership
on the surface. The United States of America is the only country in the world
that has granted the rights to own minerals to private parties. It is easy to
separate mineral rights and surface rights, and in fact, many mineral right
owners retained their mineral rights long after their surface rights were sold.
Once retained, mineral rights can be owned forever, except in Louisiana where "prescriptions" dictate that retained mineral rights only last 10 years once the
surface has been sold.
Can mineral rights be divided?
Often, mineral rights are divided many many times with each owner owning only a
fraction of the interest in said property. In order for such lands to be leased,
the oil company must get signatures from each owner on the lease/leases.
What can I do if I only own a portion of the mineral rights for a
particular tract of land?
If possible, contact the other owners to see if they too are interested in
leasing their land. This makes it much easier to appeal to Energy companies.
Where the other owners are not known, you can still submit your info and we can
look into property ownership and send you some options.
What if I don't know if there is any valuable commodity on my property?
You can submit your land info, and we'll inform you of potential and
possibilities.
Are there any duties and obligations?
We currently require no duties or obligations, and will only contact you in the
manner you choose.
If one party owns mineral rights but not surface rights, and another party only
owns surface rights to the same tract of land; Can the land be leased and
drilled upon even should the surface owner not approve?
If a mineral rights
owner, or oil company who owns his lease, wants to pursue mineral extraction,
the surface right owner cannot keep them off the land.
