Oil Companies obtainging receivership leases (mineral rights, leasing, lawyer)

[rodney4721]

The heirs of my deceased grandfather found out last year that two different oil companies have wells producing on our mineral rights but no royalties have been sent to the heirs. It appears the major producer ran an ad in a small town paper for 3 days , according to Tx law, and then got a judge to issue a receivership lease to the property. Got any ideas?

[derekv]

The royalties on a receivership lease are held in suspension, I think they have to be in an interest bearing account, call whoever is producing on the leases.

Texas Natural Resources Code, Sections 64.091, 64.092, and 64.093 provide for the appointment of a receiver to execute an oil and gas lease on properties owned by a person who cannot be located.

There is no time limit on the receivership. It can continue so long as the defendants in the receivership action (the heirs of your grandfather)fail to appear to claim the proceeds. Normally, if no production is obtained from the lease executed by the receiver, the proceeds paid into the registry of the court will escheat to the State of Texas in 3 years pursuant to Texas Property Code, Section 72.101. These funds can still be obtained by the heirs from the state through the unclaimed property fund maintained by the Texas Comptroller's office.

[loves2read]

but you will want/need an attorney because the royalty interests will has to be evaluated to see if the mineral interests were owned by your grandfather and how they were transferred--to one heir vs all heirs and if any heirs have died in the meantime--their interests will have to be tracked...

you can't just call up the receivor and say I am my grandfather's heir--give me my share--
plus the receivor makes money off that guardianship of the interests--there is a fee established--so depending on what the fee is--the receivor might not be that eager to see the interests returned to their owners...

and frankly I think that doing what the producers did is maybe letter of the law but also shady
my husband works in o/g leasing and they track down people all over the US/world who have mineral interests in leases they are buying/producing...

[Lakewooder]

Yep you need a lawyer - I was a landman many years ago and I'm not up on everything these days - however, do you have any idea if we are talking large sums here? Sometimes the interests are so fragmented and the production is very low or about to be 'shut-in'.