00:01
This is Troy Eckard with Eckard Land and Acquisition out of Dallas, Texas. What I want to talk to you about today is mineral rights and private mineral ownership.
00:10
The United States is one of the only countries in the world whereby an individual or private owner controls the actual minerals underneath the ground… Period. The fact is is that minerals are and have been one of the greatest access to wealth in the United States. Today, there are over millions and millions of private owners who receive royalty checks every single month from all companies who are producing and extracting oil and gas off of lands that are controlled by private mineral owners.
00:40
Whether you’re in Oklahoma, North Dakota, California or Texas, the fact is is that you have to rights when you buy a piece of property: you have the surface rights, everything above the ground, and you have mineral rights, everything below the ground. In some cases, those rights are actually severed, or separated.
00:58
What that means is is somebody has decided to sell the surface rights, but they retained the mineral rights below the ground. In many cases, those rights are combined in one estate or one mineral deed, meaning that you own both the surface and the mineral rights below it. The fact is is that in certain areas because of the evolution of shale drilling and horizontal exploration, also compounded by the success of frack stimulation, many mineral owners who thought that they did not have successful oil and gas exploration potential are finding themselves in areas of the country that are now being prolifically drilled, explored and produced massive amounts of oil and gas from shale formations that sit beneath the ground.
01:38
Mineral owners today are a combination of very sophisticated, very industry savvy minerals owners who had been acquiring and compounding mineral ownership over the last 20, 30, 40 years, and individual mineral owners who have not an absolute clue what’s going on and why big oil companies want to lease their property or in fact try to buy their minerals from them. The disparity between the sophisticated mineral owner and a non-sophisticated mineral owner is the difference between day and night. And, in this particular timeframe in 2019 we still have literally millions of acres of minerals that will be leased or developed over the next decade or two in shale formations that will be made up of, again, sophisticated mineral owners and non-sophisticated mineral owners.
02:25
What I would do if I were a mineral owner today is I would take the time to get professional help or I would go to the Internet and start learning as much as I can about the minerals and the oil and gas exploration that’s taking place within the state, the area, the county, and specifically the area that my minerals are involved in so that way I have a better understanding not only what my minerals may look like from economic value, but I have a better understanding why the oil and gas companies seek to lease or buy my minerals.
02:52
The more educated you are as a mineral owner, the better chance you have of maximizing your value. In my opinion, Troy Eckard with Eckard Land and Acquisition, minerals and the ownership of those minerals could in fact be one of the best investments you’ve ever had out of your entire lifetime, if you can successfully manage and put those minerals to work by leasing those minerals to oil and gas exploration companies.
