Value of mineral rights

Several members of my family and I own approx. 40 acres in Potter Co.  I wish to retain the mineral rights and sell just the property.  What is a fair price per acre to reduce the sales price for this?  The buyer is a friend, so I would put in the deed that there would be no surface activity permitted if I ever lease my rights to a gas company. 

One of my family members feels that it is somehow "unethical" to sell the property but retain the mineral rights.  I think in her mind it is like telling the buyer, "You can have the property, but we are keeping the grass."  Any thoughts anyone?  Got an opinion Jack Young?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vicki Gray on February 24, 2016 at 8:20pm

Hi Jack,

 That attorney is still in practice in the town and they didn't go back 100 yrs (who would) the deed the farmer had said nothing about it and neither did the previous several deeds so there was nothing to raise a flag.

When I was approached for the rights by JKLM we started discussing then after 3 months they hit me with they owned all the rights and could do whatever on my land and didn't need my permission they admitted it was left out in some of the deeds, but that was due to clerical error. JKLM only knew to look further because a local farmer stated his rights were signed away over 50 yrs ago, his land is near mine.

Even my current lawyer looked because of inheritance purposes when transferring deeds to us.

It is mentioned in a deed dated 1904 and it is an offset paragraph extremely misplaced of the rest of the text in the deed, JKLM provided that deed. But it is there and  I can't go back 100+ yrs ago. It is just info that I am providing of my recent experience and I am still going through with other properties.  JKLM at first did believe I had the rights. Going back to 1950 there was no mention in 5 consecutive deeds so who would have thought to go back further yet. Oh well.

This forum has helped me and I thank you all.

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on February 24, 2016 at 9:36pm

It is unfortunate that so many people in the past 50 years have ignored the old oil and gas reservations. I've seen that plenty of times myself, and it's just human nature - ignore the negatives and hope they go away! Of course, the person who owns the oil and gas can't force the surface owner to acknowledge their rights in later deeds, so those omissions aren't be held against them. Most attorneys these days will go back to the 1860s or 70s to be sure the oil and gas rights are intact, however - any attorney who doesn't should warn their client that they can easily miss something by stopping short. But as I mentioned, almost nobody in the 1970s thought that oil and gas would be valuable again in Potter County, so plenty of people are probably in the same position you are.

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