Locating Your Mineral Rights on a Map
The first step of mineral management is to know what you own!
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How Do I Locate My Oil and Gas Leases?
If you are like most people who inherit mineral rights , you have no idea where to start looking for information.
You might have inherited your minerals from a relative that kept poor records or perhaps you didn’t even know you owned mineral interest until a landman contacted you, offering to lease your minerals.
Even if you inherited your mineral from a well-organized relative, the topic may be new and unfamiliar to you.
Let’s start by locating the legal description, which will help you find the property on an interactive map. Once you’ve found your property, you can explore the wells in which you own interest as well as the oil and gas activity in the surrounding area.
You might have inherited your minerals from a relative that kept poor records or perhaps you didn’t even know you owned mineral interest until a landman contacted you, offering to lease your minerals.
Even if you inherited your mineral from a well-organized relative, the topic may be new and unfamiliar to you.
Let’s start by locating the legal description, which will help you find the property on an interactive map. Once you’ve found your property, you can explore the wells in which you own interest as well as the oil and gas activity in the surrounding area.
4 Steps to Locating Your Mineral Rights
New mineral owners often ask, "How do I found out about my mineral rights?". You may have to locate your relative's documents, but once you know the legal description, it's fairly easy to locate the tract of land under which you own mineral rights and view the wells in a given lease. If you inherited mineral rights, you should be able to locate royalty statements, leases, division orders, and mineral deeds. These documents will help you figure out what you own and provide essential information to locating your mineral leases on a map.
Finding the Legal Description
A legal description is a way of describing the geographical location of a property’s boundaries and is used for real estate transactions, including oil & gas contracts. A legal description is not the same as a property address.
Legal descriptions vary from state to state and can differ greatly when referring to many acres of land or small urban lots.
How Do I Locate the Legal Description?
If you inherited an interest in a producing oil or gas lease, the legal description should be available by:
Legal descriptions vary from state to state and can differ greatly when referring to many acres of land or small urban lots.
How Do I Locate the Legal Description?
If you inherited an interest in a producing oil or gas lease, the legal description should be available by:
Each state’s regulatory agency uses a slightly different GIS viewer but typically, you can look up a property using the legal description.
Using a GIS Viewer
Each state’s regulatory agency uses a slightly different Graphical Information System (GIS) viewer. To find your state’s public GIS viewer, google “[your state] oil and gas GIS”. Or, if your property is located in the top 9 oil and gas producing states, you can find the GIS listed below.
Oil and Gas GIS Viewers all work in the same general way. There should be some way to search based on a combination of the county and the following information from your legal description. In many states, is this is called the Public Land Survey System (PLSS).
Oil and Gas GIS Viewers all work in the same general way. There should be some way to search based on a combination of the county and the following information from your legal description. In many states, is this is called the Public Land Survey System (PLSS).
- Range
- Township
- Section
- Block
- Abstract
- API
Once you have located your inherited mineral rights, it’s easy to see which wells, if any are located in your property and even the wells and drilling activity in the surrounding area.
You can even overlay this map with geology maps or drilling activity maps to see if your mineral rights are located in an active area.
You can even overlay this map with geology maps or drilling activity maps to see if your mineral rights are located in an active area.
GIS Viewers for the top Oil & Gas Producing States
If your state is not listed here, just google your state plus “oil and gas GIS”.
Mineral Management Spreadsheet
The first and most essential part of owning mineral rights is to know what you own. This should be well documented and organized in files and a spreadsheet.
Lower your risk by keeping title documents, leases, and division orders in a folder along with one royalty statement from each operator.
The details about your mineral rights, including land tracts, units, leases, wells, and division orders should be organized in a spreadsheet or mineral management software.
Download the Free Mineral Management Spreadsheet.
Want to know more about managing your mineral rights? We have video about the advantages of actively managing your minerals, what documents you should keep, how to organize your files, monthly royalty audits, evaluate mineral management software, and if it's all too overwhelming, how to outsource the management of your mineral rights.
Lower your risk by keeping title documents, leases, and division orders in a folder along with one royalty statement from each operator.
The details about your mineral rights, including land tracts, units, leases, wells, and division orders should be organized in a spreadsheet or mineral management software.
Download the Free Mineral Management Spreadsheet.
Want to know more about managing your mineral rights? We have video about the advantages of actively managing your minerals, what documents you should keep, how to organize your files, monthly royalty audits, evaluate mineral management software, and if it's all too overwhelming, how to outsource the management of your mineral rights.
Why People Sell Their Mineral Rights
Why do people sell their mineral rights? While a lot of the older generations really value and feel sentimental about their mineral rights, we have found that younger generations are less attached. Sometimes people who inherit mineral rights simply don't want to support the oil and gas industry. Other times they find the learning curve and mineral management duties to be overwhelming. But most often, we find that people sell their minerals because they would rather have the cash upfront rather than receiving declining royalty checks over a period of years.
Why People Sell Their Minerals Rights:
I am one of the millions who lost their job due to the COVID-19 lockdown. I sold my minerals to get me through this terrible time. If my grandmother could see our current situation, she would understand. I'm so grateful to have had minerals to sell. Many people don't have this option.
With the price of oil declining and operators practically giving gas away, I decided to sell before the bottom falls out.
I am on a fixed income, and the sale of these minerals will help me secure stable housing. My children will be okay if even if they don't inherit these minerals.
My oil wells have been producing for decades and the reserves are almost depleted. Once the wells are plugged, the value will be significantly lower. I'd rather cash out now.
I inherited mineral rights, but don't want to be involved with fracking and fossil fuels. I would prefer to support renewable energy and do my part to reverse climate change.
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