Government & Institutional Services: Mineral Management for Public Entities

Public entities need an accountable administrator for mineral assets whose guidance is not shaded by an acquisition conflict. That matters for cities, counties, school districts, state agencies, land boards, and special districts that must show boards, auditors, and citizens what the public owns and is owed. Where many institutional providers approach public entities from the trust, custody, or municipal-finance side, Valor's platform is built for the mineral estate: the asset class where public funds most often lose value through unaudited royalties, stale leases, and suspended payments. With Certified Mineral Managers and CPLs on staff, Valor combines mineral accounting, lease administration, and mineral.tech® reporting so finance teams and boards can see what the public entity owns and is owed.

We do this by providing a full suite of accounting and land management solutions for our clients. Our work and report delivery occur within our proprietary software, mineral.tech®. mineral.tech® is Valor's owner platform for mineral and royalty management. Allowing you to not only store and organize your mineral information but to gain insight into opportunities to recover missed revenue and identify un-leased minerals. We offer intelligent reporting and analytics providing real-time insights that our clients desire with their assets. We understand the importance of being able to answer questions quickly and have designed our reporting capabilities to allow clients the ability to access the data to meet their needs anytime from mineral.tech®. Everything within mineral.tech® is exportable (.csv and .pdf) and can be used to provide to other professional service providers.

What to have ready

Before an onboarding call, portfolio review, or RFP scope discussion, gather the files your finance, land, or records staff already use to prove ownership and track revenue. A practical starter set:

• Recorded deeds, assignments, or ordinances that place mineral title in the entity's name
• Current leases, amendments, and surface-use or right-of-way agreements tied to the minerals
• Division orders and owner decimal schedules from each payor
• Recent royalty check stubs, remittance advice, or revenue export files
• Prior inventories, well lists, or manager packages
• Prior audit workpapers and any board or commission resolutions that reference the interests

You do not need a perfect data room to start a conversation. Missing pieces are common; clarifying them is part of professional administration. Questions about how royalty income is booked for the fund belong with the entity's finance team, CPA, or counsel.

Compare your options

Public mineral owners usually weigh four paths. None is universally right — the useful question is which fits staffing, reporting duties, and hold period:

• Self-manage: Keep control in-house when staff already track payors, suspense, lease deadlines, and audit requests across every interest.
• Professional management (Valor): Outsource day-to-day administration, audit, and mineral.tech® reporting while the public entity keeps ownership.
• Lease (or re-lease) acreage: Negotiate terms when unleased minerals or expiring leases need operator attention — without treating leasing as a sale of the mineral estate.
• Sell some or all interests: A liquidity decision that ends upside and admin burden on what you convey. Valor manages minerals for owners and is not a buyer, so it has no stake in whether you sell.

What finance officers and auditors should see

When minerals are professionally managed, finance officers, auditors, and boards still need a clear view of the public estate — without building an energy back office. Through mineral.tech®, public entities can review:

• An inventory of mineral and royalty interests tied to the entity
• Recent royalty activity by well, payor, or fund class
• Open suspense, address-hold, or unclaimed-property items
• Lease status and upcoming deadlines that affect public revenue
• A short exception list for board packets, CAFR support, and open-records responses

Day-to-day payor work stays with the manager; the public entity keeps ownership and the audit trail. How mineral income is booked for the fund belongs with the entity's finance team, CPA, or counsel.

How to open a public-entity mineral administration file

Practical steps cities, counties, school districts, and other public entities use to open an administration file for mineral and royalty interests — for management and audit-ready reporting, not for purchase offers or formal appraisals.

1. Confirm title in the public entity. Gather recorded deeds, assignments, or ordinances that vest minerals in the correct city, county, district, agency, or board entity, plus evidence of who may sign for that entity.
2. Build a working interest inventory. List known wells, counties, operators, and decimal interests — even if incomplete — so payors and gaps can be tracked from day one.
3. Collect payment and lease history. Assemble recent royalty stubs or remittance files (ideally 12–24 months), suspense or address-hold notices, and active leases, amendments, and division orders on file.
4. Assemble finance, land, and counsel contacts. Record contacts for the finance officer, auditor liaison, land or facilities staff, and outside counsel. Pull any prior mineral schedules used in CAFR footnotes, board packets, or RFP scopes. Valor does not provide tax or legal advice.
5. Hand the file to professional administration. Use the package to start public-entity mineral management — reconstructing pay status and ownership schedules where documents are missing — so staff can focus on fiduciary oversight and public reporting.

Keep royalties in pay after entity changes and staff turnover

Public entities often receive or reorganize mineral and royalty interests through mergers, consolidations, annexations, tax foreclosures, or donations. Until payors recognize the current legal entity as owner of record — and until a new finance liaison is known to operators — royalties may continue under a predecessor name or sit in suspense. A practical continuity checklist:

• Confirm the current legal name and who may sign for the city, county, district, agency, or board
• List wells and payors still showing a predecessor entity, dissolved district, or prior remittance address as owner of record
• Submit updated owner packets and division-order paperwork to each payor
• Track suspense balances and released payments until major payors remit under the current entity name
• File a short handoff memo for the next finance officer or auditor liaison covering inventory, income status, and open exceptions; route entity-law, title, and fund-accounting questions to counsel and the entity's finance team or CPA — Valor administers owner-of-record updates and does not give tax or legal advice

Valor coordinates those payor updates and shows suspense and payment status in mineral.tech® so boards and auditors can see continuity while the public entity keeps the minerals. Request a free consultation with Valor if a recent reorganization or staff change has interrupted royalty pay.

Who Our Government & Institutional Services Team Serves

Public mineral ownership is broader than most citizens realize — and every category below carries fiduciary and transparency obligations that generic asset administration does not meet:

• Cities & municipalities — minerals under parks, rights-of-way, airports, and annexed land, plus royalty streams funding general funds.
• Counties — county-held minerals from tax foreclosures, donations, and public lands, often scattered across dozens of surveys.
• School districts & permanent school funds — endowment lands and mineral trusts whose income funds education, with board-level reporting duties.
• State agencies & land boards — leasing programs, unit participation, and royalty compliance at portfolio scale.
• Public universities & college endowments — donated and legacy mineral interests requiring stewardship alongside the endowment’s investment reporting.
• Hospital, water, port, and other special districts — mineral interests acquired with district land that rarely receive dedicated oversight.
• Public pension & OPEB trusts — mineral and royalty allocations that need clean accounting inside trust reporting.

Cities, municipalities, and other government entities rely on Valor to outsource mineral and royalty management, accounting, and land management so that they can ensure that they are being paid and accounted for correctly. We can help you receive the financial rewards of oil, gas or mineral ownership without the burden of day-to-day management, administration and keeping up with ever changing technology and information management. Our wide range of customized capabilities includes:

Why Public Entities Choose Valor for Government & Institutional Services

• No acquisition conflict: Valor manages public mineral interests for the entity — the advice a public entity receives is never shaded by an acquisition interest.
• SOC certification: segregation of duties, access controls, and audited processes appropriate for public-fund administration.
• Mineral-first expertise: the platform, the team, and the software exist for one asset class — oil, gas, and mineral interests — rather than minerals as a side desk within a trust or municipal-finance practice.
• Procurement-friendly: Valor responds to RFPs, RFQs, and RFIs from public entities and can structure scope, deliverables, and reporting to match your procurement requirements.
• Transparent economics: revenue recovered from underpaid royalties, deduction errors, and suspense is directly accretive to public funds and their beneficiaries.