Royalty payment and deduction disputes

What the record can show

• The owner's mineral or royalty fraction, traced from the instrument that created it.
• The royalty in each lease, and any addendum that changes how it is figured or what may be charged against it.
• The unit and tract acreage that turn a lease royalty into a decimal.
• Whether the payor's decimal matches the arithmetic from the record, and where the two part ways.
• What the check stubs show for volumes, prices, taxes and deductions, month by month.

Documents that matter

• The leases and every amendment, ratification or addendum.
• The deeds that created or conveyed the interest, including NPRI and ORRI grants.
• Division orders, transfer orders and, once produced, the division order title opinion.
• Check stubs, also called owner statements, for the months in question.
• Unit designations and plats for pooled wells.

How a landman's work helps

• Rebuilding the decimal from the instruments and setting it beside the pay deck.
• Laying each deduction on the stubs beside the words of the royalty clause, so the difference is visible on one page.
• Finding interests held in suspense, and the reason of record: a title gap, an unsigned division order, an estate never probated.
• Tables and exhibits a jury can read without a landman in the room.

What to send

• The well name or API number, and the county and state.
• The lease or leases, and the deed or chain into the owner.
• A few check stubs and the division order.
• Who the payor and operator are, for a conflicts check.

We are landmen, not attorneys. This page describes the land record in general terms. It is not legal advice, and every matter turns on its own instruments.