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.