For Texas mineral and royalty owners
Plain answers about the minerals you own or inherited
Guides written for people, not lawyers. A glossary of the words on your statements. And every Texas county's drilling activity, updated each week from Railroad Commission records.
This week's busiest Texas counties
- Upton County 85 permits and completions
- Midland County 63 permits and completions
- Martin County 62 permits and completions
- Crane County 49 permits and completions
- DeWitt County 47 permits and completions
Guides
How to find out whether you own mineral rights in Texas
The county appraisal roll is public and searchable by name. Here is how owners’ names are written, what a match proves, and what to do when nothing comes up.
Inherited mineral rights in Texas: the first five steps
You inherited mineral rights in Texas and nobody gave you a folder. Here is what to find, who to tell, and the order that saves the most trouble later.
Mineral, surface and royalty interests: what you actually own
Minerals, surface and royalty are three different things in Texas. What each one is, which rights come with it, and how to read the words in your own deed.
How to read your Texas royalty statement, line by line
Every column on a Texas royalty check stub, from the owner number down to the taxes and deductions, and how your decimal turns a well into your payment.
Division orders in Texas: what to check before you sign
A division order states the decimal an operator plans to pay you. How that decimal is built, the four things to compare, and what Texas law says about it.
What a Texas drilling permit means for mineral owners
A W-1 drilling permit filed with the Texas Railroad Commission is an application, not a well. What it tells a mineral owner, and what it does not tell you.
Pooling and units in Texas: what “on your unit” means
Why most Texas wells are drilled on pooled units, how a tract joins one, and why a permit on your unit and a permit next door mean very different things.
Held by production: is an old Texas lease still alive?
An oil and gas lease from 1971 may still be in force today. What holds a Texas lease past its primary term, and how to check the public record yourself.
Suspense and unclaimed royalties: money that may be yours
Why a payor holds royalty money, where it goes when it is held too long, and how to search the Texas Comptroller’s unclaimed property records for your family.
Your county appraisal and the mineral tax bill, explained
Texas taxes producing minerals as property. How the county appraisal district sets the value, what the notice means, and what its deadlines actually are.
County activity
One page for each of Texas's 254 counties: permits filed and issued, completions, operator changes, the most active operators and the notable filings, currently for the week of Oct 5, 2026.