Mineral Rights History

Today, about two thirds of the Texas's 254 counties produce oil and about a third of the state's tax revenue comes from oil and gas. Exploration companies continue searching for untapped reservoirs of oil and gas, using new technology to search at greater depths.

Oil and gas lawyer, D. Scott Heselmeyer, PC, handles oil and gas cases across the state of Texas. He represents landowners who are considering selling mineral rights. He also represents companies in the oil and gas industry. He handles oil and gas contracts and, litigation involving all phases of oil and gas exploration and development. He handles oil and gas contracts, contract disputes, title disputes and issues involving royalties.

From his years of experience working with oil and gas industry, he has come to appreciate Texas's rich history of mineral rights including oil and gas production.

The first producing oil well was drilled in Texas in Nacogdoches County in 1866 - the same year coincidentally that the adoption of the Texas Constitution gave landowners in Texas rights to all minerals and metals beneath their lands. Before that time, the state followed the Spanish and Mexican legal custom of reserving minerals beneath the land surface for the government unless expressly granted to the landowner.

Mineral rights entitle a property owner or business to explore and produce the minerals, gas or oil found below the surface of the land. The owner of the mineral rights can sell, lease, or gift the mineral rights to others.

The start of the modern petroleum industry began in Texas in 1901 with the legendary Spindletop oil field in Beaumont, Texas -the largest in the world. Within a few years, the Humble Oil field, another giant reservoir, was discovered, turning the Texas coast around Port Arthur and Beaumont into an industrial hub for fineries and export facilities. Within a decade, a major strike in Wichita County produced the Electra field, bringing oil fever and  oil boomtowns to north Texas. By the 1920s, oil find are becoming commonplace in Limestone County and Navarro County and the Panhandle become the newest frontier for oil discoveries. Growth continued until World War II.

During the 1960s, the oil industry grew dramatically as the national thirst for petroleum products increase. After a downturn during the 1980s, the oil industry showed signs of recovery during the 1990s.

Today, the hunt for untapped gas reserves has prompted drilling for shale gas in the Barnett Shale in central Texas. The exploration relies on advances in horizontal drilling and a process called hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas from the subsurface.

Texas oil and gas attorney, D. Scott Heselmeyer, PC, can help you with all your legal issues related to oil and gas and minerals rights, whether it's negotiating a lease agreement or litigating a dispute between oil and gas production companies.