The Mineral Rights Podcast: Mineral Rights | Royalties | Oil and Gas | Matt Sands

This month's mailbag covers a little bit of everything; thanks to Alfred, Jesse, Dave, John, Dean, Frank and Gary for sending your questions. Topics this month range from who gets paid royalties on gravel, to the Lithium that may be hiding in produced water with Pennsylvania natural gas, what to do when a royalty check hasn't arrived in four months, and we finally do the math to answer the question about what is better - a higher lease bonus or the highest royalty rate possible when leasing. This month's listener questions come from North Dakota, Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Colorado and beyond, but the lessons carry across state lines. Whether you own minerals or are just curious, there's a good chance one of these answers will save you money, time or a headache. As always, links to the resources mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

You spot a new drilling permit near your minerals, and months later you hear a rig came and went. You check the state website and see the well has been completed. Still no check. Is the well producing? Are you even included in it? Or is everyone just behind on paperwork? The confusing part is that two separate clocks are running at once. One tracks what's happening in the field. The other tracks what's happening in the operator's office to figure out who gets paid and how much. In this episode, we show you how to follow both, so you know what each milestone means and exactly what to ask the operator when you think a check is due.

As always, links to the resources mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at https://mineralrightspodcast.com/mrp-353-from-permit-to-paycheck-how-to-track-a-well-on-your-minerals/.

What do carbon dioxide, a Texas ranch entrance, and a summit in Washington have in common? Each one could affect your royalty checks. In this month's news episode, we cover a start-up selling captured CO2 to oil producers, which could keep older wells producing for years. We also look at a Texas family that turned down a $21,000 pipeline offer and won a $7 million jury verdict, and at why new pipelines could end the negative gas prices West Texas royalty owners have been seeing. Then we discuss President Xi's visit to Washington and why China may be better prepared for high oil prices than many people realize. We finish with the latest rig count, which is slowly climbing as the price of crude oil stays high

As always, links to the articles mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

Congress set aside about $4.7 billion to plug abandoned oil and gas wells, but by the end of 2025 only about 40% of it had gone out, and states had plugged just over 10,000 of the roughly 140,000 documented orphan wells. In this update, Justin Williams and I look at the results state by state, whether the money was well spent, and what you can do if an orphan well is on or near your minerals.

As always, links to the resources mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

You inherited mineral rights from your grandfather. You live in a different state. Then you get divorced — does your spouse have a claim to those minerals?

In this episode, we break down what actually happens to individually owned mineral rights during a divorce, state by state. We cover the difference between community property and equitable distribution states, why Texas and Louisiana treat the exact same royalty check in opposite ways, and why North Dakota doesn't automatically protect inherited minerals the way you'd expect.

If you're the steward of a family mineral legacy, this one's worth your full attention. As always, links to resources mentioned on the show can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

This information is being shared for educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult with a qualified attorney.

This month's mailbag covers a little bit of everything — huge thanks to Phillip, Timothy, Jodi, Joey, Nick, Gretchen, Tom, and Bruce for sending in such thoughtful questions. From splitting water revenue with the state of Texas, to operators who've gone quiet, to why natural gas prices in Texas aren't reacting to overseas supply shocks, this episode is packed with practical answers for real situations mineral owners are facing today. Be sure to check out the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com for additional resources.

Oil prices that can't make up their mind, a tribe finally getting the green light to run its own energy business after a 20-year wait, and some of the biggest names in oil and gas quietly writing billion-dollar checks on a technology that doesn't even exist yet commercially, that's what's on the table this month. In this episode, Justin and I break down the Southern Ute Indian Tribe's landmark agreement with the Department of the Interior, dig into why oil keeps swinging up and down (and what that's doing to everything from your grocery bill to your royalty check), unpack why Chevron, Shell, Equinor, and other majors are betting big on nuclear fusion, and close out with the latest rig count numbers, which tell a more optimistic story than the weekly headline suggests.

As always, links to the articles discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

You threw the lease offer in a drawer, never signed, and mostly forgot about it — and then a check (or a bill) for a well showed up in your mailbox anyway. If that sounds impossible, you're not alone in thinking so, and you're also not alone in living through it. In most oil and gas states, refusing to sign a lease doesn't stop a well from getting drilled on the acreage under your minerals. Many states follow a process called statutory or forced pooling specifically so that one owner can't block an entire drilling unit, and that process comes with a real decision to make, on a real deadline, whether you ever picked up the phone or not. In this episode, we lay out the four choices that show up again and again once that process starts — lease, participate, do nothing, or protest — walk through how the math and deadlines differ in Colorado, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas, and give you a simple framework for figuring out which path actually fits your situation. If you've got a pooling notice sitting on your kitchen table right now, or you're just wondering what would happen if you said no, this is the episode that lays out the whole decision tree in one place.

As always, links to the resources mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

Can an adopted grandchild inherit mineral rights the same way a biological grandchild can? Will your Permian Basin lease ever see a second bench developed, or is one horizontal target all you're going to get? And why does the number on your royalty check almost never match the production volume you pulled from the state's own database? This month's listener questions episode tackles all three, plus a practical walkthrough of how operators are stacking benches in the Permian and what that means for the long-term value of your minerals. Whether you're trying to untangle an inheritance question, decide between a working interest and a royalty interest, or just make sense of the numbers on your check, this episode is here to help you get you unstuck.

As always, you can find links to additional resources mentioned in this episode in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.

https://mineralrightspodcast.com/A ballot fight in Erie, Colorado could unwind a $35 million mineral deal, an Arkansas court just handed royalty owners a win on post-production deductions, and oil prices are once again bouncing around based on whatever the headlines say about Iran that day. In this month's news episode, we break down what's really happening in Erie and why the outcome may matter less than residents think, then we unpack a ruling that reinforces one of the most important lessons in mineral ownership — your lease language rules everything. We'll also look at what a small but steady rise in the rig count tells us about where operators think prices are headed, and why you shouldn't put too much stock in President Trump's saber rattling about oil company price gouging. If you own minerals or royalties, this is your monthly download on what's changing and what it means for your bottom line.

As always, links to the articles discussed can be found at mineralrightspodcast.com.