Ohio mineral rights search: how to find who owns the minerals

Where Ohio mineral rights are recorded

Deeds, mineral deeds, leases and Dormant Mineral Act filings are recorded with the county recorder in the county where the land sits. Search the grantor and grantee indexes for each owner. Dormant Mineral Act notices and affidavits must give the volume and page of the recorded instruments they concern, so when you find one, it points straight to the deeds that created the severed mineral rights (Ohio Revised Code 5301.56).

Then check the county auditor. Under the Dormant Mineral Act, creating a separate tax parcel for a severed mineral interest is one of the events that keeps it from being deemed abandoned, so an auditor record for your mineral rights is worth printing. Use the auditor as a cross-check in your Ohio mineral rights search; the recorder's deeds remain the proof. Ohio does value producing oil and gas reserves as real property, but the formula in Ohio Revised Code 5713.051 works well by well and doesn't address royalty owners' accounts, so a missing auditor record proves nothing either way.

Dormant Mineral Act filings in an Ohio mineral rights search

A severed Ohio mineral interest can be deemed abandoned and vest in the surface owner only if none of these happened in the 20 years before the surface owner's notice: a recorded title transaction, production or withdrawal by the holder, inclusion in a qualifying pooling or unitization, use for underground gas storage, a drilling permit issued to the holder, a recorded claim to preserve, or creation of a separate mineral tax parcel.

The surface owner must send notice by certified mail, or publish it once in a county newspaper if mail can't be completed, then record an affidavit of abandonment 30 to 60 days later. A holder has 60 days after notice to record a claim to preserve or an affidavit naming a saving event. If nothing is filed in time, the surface owner can record a notice of failure to file, and the interest vests in that surface owner. This is the part of an Ohio mineral rights search that can change ownership, so don't skip it. Search the recorder's index under each family name for all four documents.

Is my land being drilled? ODNR well tools

ODNR's Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management keeps Ohio's well records, and three of its resources show activity near your land. None of them record mineral rights, but each shows whether anyone is drilling on yours.

• Oil and Gas Well Locator: ODNR's map of oil and gas wells, for spotting wells on and near your tract.
• Ohio Oil & Gas Well Database: reports from the Division's Risk Based Data Management System, including completions and the permit and plug list. A downloadable version covers more than 100,000 wells permitted since 1980 plus older well card data. The online database can't be reached from outside the United States.
• Unitization: when owners of 65% of the land over a pool apply to operate it as a unit under Ohio Revised Code 1509.28, everyone in the proposed unit gets certified mail notice of the hearing, the applicant publishes notice locally, and any order is posted on the Division's website. If a notice reaches you, the applicant's title work lists you as a person in the proposed unit, a useful clue about what you own.

Unclaimed royalties in Ohio

Ohio's unclaimed money is held by the Department of Commerce, Division of Unclaimed Funds. Search unclaimedfunds.ohio.gov under every past mineral rights owner, including relatives who held a fraction. When Utica wells in your unit are paying and nothing reaches you, the operator's division order staff can say whether your share is waiting on title.

Ohio mineral rights search, step by step

Follow the county's records first, then the state's.

1. Get the parcel number and legal description from your deed or the county auditor.
2. Search the county recorder's indexes for each owner and pull every deed, lease and mineral reservation.
3. Search for Dormant Mineral Act filings: notices, affidavits of abandonment, claims to preserve and notices of failure to file.
4. Ask the county auditor whether a separate mineral parcel exists.
5. Check the ODNR Oil and Gas Well Locator and Well Database for wells near the tract, and watch for unitization notices.
6. Search Ohio unclaimed funds under every family name.

When to call a landman or attorney

If an affidavit of abandonment has been recorded against your mineral rights, or the 60-day response window is open, talk to an oil and gas attorney now; for a long chain without that pressure, a landman can do the records work. Either way, finish the Ohio mineral rights search before you respond, because the saving event you cite has to be one the records support.

For the Utica counties where buyers focus, see selling mineral rights in Ohio, and read Ohio mineral rights value for how title problems affect price. With your records in order, you can compare offers from buyers in your county.

Ohio questions