Do I get the oil and gas rights to my property when I purchase?

It depends. As a general rule, unless reserved by the seller in the agreement of sale and deed, you receive all rights the seller held in the subsurface mineral, oil and gas. However, a standard title search for title insurance purposes is not designed to search title to the subsurface so you will not necessarily know what, if any, subsurface rights the seller had to convey. If subsurface rights are important to you, you will need to obtain an oil and gas title search to verify whether or not the subsurface rights have ever been severed from the surface rights.

Sometimes, oil and gas leases are found as part of a standard title search. In that case, the seller is asked to identify whether royalties are being paid. If yes, the buyer is entitled to future royalties. If no, the seller should provide an affidavit of non-production, which is recorded, stating that the seller is not receiving royalties and, to the best of seller's knowledge, there is no production under the lease, and the oil and gas lease has ceased by its own terms.

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