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

Where Texas mineral rights are recorded

A Texas mineral rights search starts at the county clerk. Deeds, mineral deeds, oil and gas leases and affidavits of heirship are recorded with the county clerk in the county where the land lies. If your tract crosses a county line, search both counties. Texas land is described by original survey and abstract number, often with a block and section number, rather than the township and range used in most western states. Copy these from your deed before you start; the county index and the state's maps both use them.

In the grantor-grantee index, look up each owner by name, then pull every deed that mentions oil, gas or minerals, every recorded lease and any heirship affidavit or probated will. A will probated in another county won't show up in the land records where the mineral rights are until someone records a copy there, so search the county where each past owner lived too. Many county clerks offer online index searches, often through a paid vendor; older volumes may be on microfilm at the courthouse.

Texas appraisal district records as a mineral rights clue

Producing mineral rights are taxable real property in Texas. In Tarrant County, for example, each interest in each producing unit is its own tax account with its own bill, the bill goes to the address on the operator's division order, and interests become taxable on January 1 of the year after the unit first produces (Tarrant County). That makes the appraisal district's online property search a quick way to see whether a name in your family holds a producing interest, and in which lease.

A missing account doesn't prove you own no mineral rights. Very small interests can be exempt, and because the account follows the division order, it may still carry a deceased relative's name. Treat the appraisal district as one stop in a Texas mineral rights search, not a substitute for the deed records. The Texas Comptroller keeps a directory of appraisal districts with contact details for every county.

Is my land being drilled? Railroad Commission of Texas tools

The RRC side of a Texas mineral rights search is about activity, not ownership. Check both ends of every nearby horizontal well: its surface location can sit on a neighbor's tract while its bottom hole lies past yours. Note the lease names on permits near you and compare them with leases recorded against your mineral rights.

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) lists its free public tools on its research queries page. Three of them answer most owners' questions.

• Public GIS Viewer: find your tract by county, abstract, survey, block and section, then see the wells, permits and pipelines around it. You can draw a radius of up to 2.5 miles and count the well surface and bottom-hole locations inside it.
• Drilling Permit (W-1) Query: search permits by lease name, lease number, district and approval or submission date, including horizontal wellbores.
• Production Data Query System (PDQ): monthly oil and gas production reported for each lease statewide.

Railroad Commission well search: step by step

Start with the API number. A Texas RRC well search runs fastest on this number, which the RRC assigns to each wellbore. Enter only the 3-digit county code and the 5-digit well number, eight digits with no dashes, and leave off the Texas state code 42. In the Public GIS Viewer, the API search takes you straight to the well on the map. If you only know the lease, use the viewer's lease ID search instead. The well records then become the activity half of your Texas mineral rights search; the county deeds above are the ownership half.

Next, confirm the lease and operator in the Wellbore Query. It searches by API number, district, oil lease number or gas well ID, county, field, operator and drilling permit number, and it covers current wells on the proration schedule as well as historical wells. Write down the district and lease number it returns; this step of a railroad commission well search ties the well to a lease. One oil lease can hold several wells with different API numbers, while each gas lease carries one well.

Then pull the paperwork. The Completions Query covers completion packets filed online and searches by API number, drilling permit number, county, field number, filing operator number and lease number. Older files sit in the imaged Oil & Gas Well Records, which hold drilling applications, completion reports, plugging reports and transportation authority forms. The RRC's tip for a railroad commission well search in those files: if you know the lease number or API number, that one number is enough.

Now check production. In the Production Data Query System (PDQ), the Specific Lease Query needs the lease number and district number; without them, search by lease name. For a Texas mineral rights search on producing land, this is the step that shows what a tract earns. Texas reports production by lease, not by well, so an oil lease total includes every well on it. Expect about a two-month lag, and treat recent months as provisional, because the RRC says records are substantially complete after about six months.

Last, look for new drilling. The Drilling Permit (W-1) Query searches by API number, permit number, district, county, operator name or number, lease name or number, field and survey name. A lease name search returns every permit under that name, while a lease number search only finds wells on the proration schedule, so search by name to close out a Texas RRC well search. New permits are the clearest sign a Texas mineral rights search will turn up buyer interest.

Unclaimed royalties in Texas

Under Texas Property Code chapter 75, mineral proceeds, which cover payments from production as well as lease bonuses and delay rentals, are presumed abandoned once they've gone unclaimed for more than three years after they became payable, and the holder then reports them to the Comptroller. Search ClaimItTexas.gov, the Comptroller's official unclaimed property site, under every past mineral rights owner in your family. Money an operator is still holding in suspense won't appear there yet, so ask the operator too.

Texas title wrinkles: abstracts and heirship

Abstract and title companies compile abstracts of title, a history of every recorded document affecting a tract. For a long mineral rights chain, ordering one can save days in the deed books.

Heirship is the other common gap. When a Texas owner dies without a probated will, heirs often record an affidavit of heirship in the county records so operators and buyers can see who inherited the mineral rights. A Texas mineral rights search that stops at the last recorded deed can miss heirs who never recorded anything. Our page on inherited mineral rights in Texas explains when that works and when probate is needed.

Texas mineral rights search, step by step

Work through these in order; each step gives you names or numbers for the next.

1. Find your legal description: county, survey name, abstract number and any block and section, from a deed, lease or check stub.
2. Search the county clerk's grantor-grantee index for each owner and pull every deed, mineral deed, lease and heirship affidavit.
3. Search the appraisal district's records under each family name for mineral accounts and the leases they name.
4. Locate the tract in the RRC Public GIS Viewer and note wells, permits and lease names around it.
5. Look up those leases in PDQ for production and in the Drilling Permit (W-1) Query for new permits.
6. Search ClaimItTexas.gov for every past owner, and contact the operator's owner relations staff with your deed if wells are producing.

When to call a landman or attorney

If your Texas mineral rights search turns up several generations, conflicting deeds or an estate that was never probated, hire a landman to run the title and an oil and gas attorney to fix it before you lease or sell.

Once you know what mineral rights you own, see selling mineral rights in Texas for where buyers are active and Texas mineral rights value for how offers are priced. If you decide to sell, get offers from up to three buyers active in your county, free and with no obligation.

Texas questions