Owning land doesn't prove you own the mineral rights under it. In every major oil and gas state, the mineral rights can be sold or kept apart from the surface, and many tracts were split decades ago. The only way to answer "who owns the mineral rights to my property?" is to trace the recorded documents for your tract. Start with the free checks below, then dig into county records if you need to.
Surface rights vs mineral rights
Land has two estates. The surface estate is the ground you walk on. The mineral estate is the oil, gas and other minerals below it. When one person owns both, the mineral rights are unsevered. When a deed sells or keeps the minerals apart from the land, they are severed, and from then on each estate passes on its own through deeds, wills and probate.
Severed mineral rights often end up split among many heirs who have never seen the land. They also carry real weight: the Bureau of Land Management notes that when surface and subsurface rights are owned by different parties, the mineral rights often take precedence. In parts of the West, the federal government holds the minerals under privately owned surface, which the BLM calls split estate.
A few states can return unused severed mineral rights to the surface owner. Ohio's Dormant Mineral Act lets a surface owner claim them through a notice process if none of the qualifying events, such as production or a recorded preservation claim, happened in the prior 20 years. In Louisiana, a mineral servitude ends after ten years of nonuse.
Start with your deed
Get a copy of the deed that put the land in your name. If you don't have one, the county recording office can give you a copy. Read the legal description, then read every sentence that mentions oil, gas or minerals.
- A reservation means the seller kept something. Language like "Grantor reserves all oil, gas and other minerals" means the minerals stayed with the person who sold you the land.
- An exception means something was already gone. "Save and except all minerals previously reserved" tells you an earlier owner severed them, and you need to find that earlier deed.
- A fraction means you may own part. "An undivided one-half interest in the oil, gas and other minerals" leaves the other half with someone else.
- A royalty reservation is narrower. Someone may hold a share of the royalty while you still own the minerals and the right to lease them.
If your deed says nothing about mineral rights, they passed to you with the land, unless an earlier deed in the chain severed them. Your deed alone can't rule that out. If you bought title insurance, check the exceptions in your owner's policy; a mineral reservation listed there is a strong clue.
Trace the chain of title at the county records office
The chain of title is the series of recorded documents showing who owned your tract from the original grant to today. It lives in the county where the land sits, with the county clerk or recorder of deeds, or in Louisiana the parish clerk of court. Many counties have recent records online; older ones may be in books or on microfilm.
- Get your legal description. It may be a section, township and range, a survey and abstract number in Texas, or a metes and bounds description.
- Search the grantor-grantee index backward. Find who sold to you, then who sold to them, and keep going.
- Read each deed for mineral reservations or exceptions. The first one you find working backward shows where at least part of the minerals left your chain.
- Follow the minerals forward from that point. Track every mineral deed, will, probate and heirship affidavit until you reach today's owner.
- Note any oil and gas leases, pooling designations or ratifications. Each one names whoever claimed the minerals at the time.
Older deeds can be hard to read. Fractions such as "1/2 of 1/8" can be interpreted more than one way, so write down the exact wording rather than your best guess.
What an abstract of title or title opinion tells you
An abstract of title is a compiled history of every recorded document affecting a tract, usually assembled by an abstract or title company. A title opinion is an attorney's written conclusion, after examining those records, about who owns what share and what must be fixed before anyone relies on it.
Operators usually get a title opinion before they pay royalties on a new well. If minerals under your tract produce, someone has likely already done this work, and the operator's division order department can tell you whose names it shows.
Signs that answer "who owns the mineral rights to my property" in your favor
Many owners learn they own mineral rights from paperwork, not from a search. Look for any of these in your own files or a deceased relative's papers.
- Royalty checks or monthly owner statements from an operator or purchaser. Our guide on how to read a royalty check explains each line.
- A division order, which asks you to confirm a decimal interest in a well before payment starts.
- Letters from landmen offering to lease, or from buyers offering to purchase.
- A Form 1099-MISC with an amount in box 2, Royalties. IRS instructions require payors to report royalties of $10 or more, so an interest that paid at least that much in a year should produce one.
- Notices of a spacing or pooling hearing from a state oil and gas regulator.
- A separate property tax bill for a mineral interest, which some counties send.
Check state well maps for activity near you
Every oil and gas state publishes wells, permits and production online. In Texas, the Railroad Commission's Public GIS Viewer lets you search by lease, API number or a radius around a point. Find your tract, then see whether wells are drilled or permitted in your section or unit.
Activity doesn't prove who owns the mineral rights, but it tells you someone is probably being paid for them. If wells are producing and you aren't receiving checks, contact the operator's owner relations or division order department with your deed and ask whether any interest in your name, or a relative's, is being held in suspense.
Search unclaimed property
Royalties that can't be delivered, because an owner moved, died or never signed a division order, can end up with a state unclaimed property program. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators runs unclaimed.org, which links to each state's official program. NAUPA also manages MissingMoney.com, a free site that searches most participating states at once.
Search your own name and every relative who might have owned mineral rights. Search the state where the minerals are and every state where the owner lived. Searching the official state sites is free.
When to hire a landman or attorney
A short chain on one tract is a reasonable do-it-yourself project. Bring in help when:
- The mineral rights passed through several generations or several estates.
- Deeds conflict, or use fractions you can't reconcile.
- You need to fix title before an operator will pay you or a buyer will close.
- A lease offer or purchase offer is large enough that a mistake would be expensive.
A landman researches county records and builds an ownership report. An oil and gas attorney gives a legal opinion on title and prepares documents to fix gaps, such as heirship affidavits or probate filings. If the mineral rights came to you through a family estate, our page on selling inherited mineral rights covers what heirs usually need.
Mineral rights records by state
Each state keeps records and well data differently. These pages explain where to search in each one.
- Texas mineral rights search: county clerk deed records and Railroad Commission well data.
- Oklahoma mineral rights search: county clerk records and Oklahoma Corporation Commission orders.
- New Mexico mineral rights search: county clerk records and Oil Conservation Division well files.
- North Dakota mineral rights search: county recorder records and Department of Mineral Resources data.
- Ohio mineral rights search: county recorder records and Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management data.
- Pennsylvania mineral rights search: county recorder of deeds and DEP oil and gas records.
- West Virginia mineral rights search: county clerk records and Office of Oil and Gas data.
- Colorado mineral rights search: county clerk and recorder records and Energy and Carbon Management Commission data.
- Louisiana mineral rights search: parish clerk of court records and Department of Conservation and Energy data.
- Wyoming mineral rights search: county clerk records and Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data.