Mineral Rights and Royalty Owner Resources
A directory of resources to help mineral and royalty owners better understand what they own.
Quick answer: Valor is an independent mineral management company with $32M+ returned to owners through stub-by-stub auditing and real-time visibility through mineral.tech®. This hub collects free owner resources on royalty math, lease language, division orders, post-production costs, audit rights, documents to gather, and neutral keep-manage-lease-sell education so owners can research before engaging an attorney, advisor, or mineral manager.
How to use this resource hub
Start with the free Valor tools below to confirm what you own and how royalties are calculated. Use the state agency, GIS, and association directories when you need an official filing, well map, or owner group. When you are ready for help managing day-to-day administration, request a free consultation with Valor — owners keep their minerals; Valor manages the work and surfaces wells, decimals, and payments in mineral.tech®.
Documents owners usually gather
You do not need a perfect file to start researching. These records make royalty math, title questions, and a management conversation clearer:
- Recorded mineral or royalty deeds, assignments, and probate or trust instruments that show how you acquired the interest
- Oil and gas leases, amendments, ratifications, and any surface-use or pooling agreements tied to the tract
- Division orders and recent operator remittance stubs (check detail for volume, price, decimal, and deductions)
- Well lists, unit declarations, or prior manager/attorney summaries if you inherited a portfolio
- Current owner address / W-9 on file with each payor so suspense and escheat risk stay low
This checklist is educational, not legal advice. Title, probate, and tax questions belong with a qualified attorney or CPA for your facts.
Keep, manage, lease, or sell — a calm comparison
Owners usually weigh four paths. None is universally right; the useful move is to match the path to your time, documents, and goals:
- Self-manage: You track payors, suspense, leases, and transfers yourself. Lowest cash fee; highest time and error risk as interests spread across states.
- Professional management (Valor): Valor handles revenue auditing, lease administration, transfers, and reporting on mineral.tech® while you keep the asset. Best when you want continuity without building an energy back office.
- Lease: Grant an operator the right to develop under negotiated terms. Focus on royalty, term, Pugh, post-production, and audit language — not only bonus.
- Sell: Convert future cash flow to cash today. Compare any proposal to ownership type, decimal, producing status, operator activity, location, lease terms, and title — never a rule-of-thumb multiple. Use an advisor whose compensation does not depend on closing a sale.
Which resource do I need?
Match the job you have today to a Valor tool or an official directory on this page:
- Confirm whether I own minerals: start with Do I own the mineral rights?, then deeds in the documents list above.
- Understand a royalty check: use the royalty decimal interest calculator and compare volume, price, decimal, and deductions on your stub.
- Find wells or operators on my tract: open the Oil & Gas GIS Maps directory for your state, then confirm operator of record in the regulatory agency list.
- Look up an official filing or agency contact: use Oil & Gas Regulatory Agencies by State below (primary sources, not buyer marketing).
- Join owner education groups: see state/regional associations and national groups such as NARO in the directories below.
- Search for unclaimed royalty money: use Find unclaimed mineral & royalty money.
- Ready for help keeping the asset: request a free consultation with Valor — owners keep their minerals; Valor manages the work on mineral.tech®.
How to research your mineral interests
A practical sequence Valor recommends before you hire an attorney, advisor, or mineral manager:
- Gather ownership records: Collect mineral or royalty deeds, leases and amendments, division orders, recent remittance stubs, and confirm the address or W-9 on file with each payor.
- Use Valor’s free owner tools: Confirm ownership questions, estimate a royalty decimal, and look up terms with Valor’s calculators, glossary, FAQ, and related owner guides linked on this page.
- Check official agency and GIS sources: Use the state oil and gas agency and GIS directories below to verify wells, operators, and filings for your tracts.
- Compare keep, manage, lease, or sell: Match your time, documents, and goals to self-management, professional management with Valor, leasing, or selling—using value factors, not a rule-of-thumb multiple.
- Optional: request a free consultation with Valor: When you want help managing day-to-day administration while keeping the asset, request a free consultation with Valor for a portfolio review.
Valor Owner Tools & Guides
Start here — free tools and plain-language guides from Valor to help you confirm what you own, understand what affects value, and keep and manage your interests:
- Do I own the mineral rights to my property? — confirm ownership from your deed and the county record before anyone asks for a signature.
- Royalty decimal interest calculator — estimate your decimal interest and monthly royalty, and what to verify on a division order.
- Anatomy of a mineral estate — the five separable rights in the bundle you own, and how each can be sold or kept.
- Mineral rights glossary — plain-language definitions of NRI, Pugh clause, suspense, pooling, and more.
- Mineral management FAQ — common owner questions on payments, suspense, leases, and independent management.
- Find unclaimed mineral & royalty money — search escheated royalties owed to you or a deceased relative.
- Dormant mineral statutes by state — how abandoned-mineral laws can lapse an interest, and how owners protect theirs.
- County clerk & recorder directory — where mineral deeds and leases are recorded, by county across 11 states.
Oil & Gas Regulatory Agencies by State
Oil & Gas GIS Maps by State
Oil and Natural Gas Associations by State/Region
- Alabama: Alabama Natural Gas Association
- Alaska: Alaska Oil & Gas Association
- Arkansas: Arkansas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association
- California: California Independent Petroleum Association
- Colorado: Colorado Oil & Gas Association
- Florida: Florida Natural Gas Association
- Indiana: Indiana Energy Association
- Indiana: Indiana Oil & Gas Association
- Kansas: Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association
- Kansas: Eastern Kansas Oil & Gas Association
- Kansas: Southwest Kansas Royalty Owners Association
- Louisiana: Louisiana Oil & Gas Association
- Louisiana: Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association
- Michigan: Michigan Oil and Gas Association
- Mississippi: Mississippi Independent Producers and Royalty Owners
- Montana: Montana Petroleum Association
- New Mexico: New Mexico Oil & Gas Association
- North Dakota: North Dakota Petroleum Council
- Ohio: Ohio Oil & Gas Association
- Oklahoma: Natural Gas & Energy Association of Oklahoma
- Oklahoma: Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma
- Oklahoma: Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association
- Pennsylvania: Energy Association of Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association
- Tennessee: Tennessee Oil & Gas Association
- Texas: Natural Gas Society of East Texas
- Texas: Texas Alliance of Energy Producers
- Texas: Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association
- Texas: Texas Oil & Gas Association
- Texas: Natural Gas Society of the Permian Basin
- Texas: Panhandle Producers & Royalty Owners Association
- Texas: Texas Land and Mineral Owners Association
- Texas: Texas - National Association of Royalty Owners
- Midwest U.S.: Midwest Cogeneration Association Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio & Wisconsin
- Northeast U.S.: Northeast Gas Association Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont
- Northwest U.S.: Northwest Gas Association
- Western U.S.: Western States Petroleum Association Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington
Oil and Natural Gas Associations