Guides for Texas mineral owners

Each one is written for a new owner, from public sources, and says plainly when a question needs an attorney or a CPA.

• 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.