Hi Folks,

We own the majority of our mineral rights but not all of them.  It seems that no one knows who owns the rest of the rights.  According to Senate Bill 594 P.N. 688  aka the Dormant Gas and Oil Act, any royalties that would go to the unknown owner are put into a trust until the owner can be located.  There is nothing in the law that deals with what would happen if the owners cannot be located. In some states, these rights would revert to the surface owner after a specified period of time if all attempts made to find the unknown owner failed. I would never want to take anyone's mineral rights away from them but many of these leases are from the 1800s and the unknown owners are long gone.  I just don't see a point in having royalties sit in a trust indefinitely and I have written my state senator regarding this matter.  First, I am curious as to how many of you are having the same issue as I am and second, I encourage you to write your state senator to have him or her look into this issue.