Glossary

The words, in plain English.

Deeds, letters, and royalty statements use a vocabulary nobody is born knowing. Here is what each word means in practice. Where a page on this site explains it properly, the entry links there.

What you own

Mineral rights: Ownership of the oil, gas, and other minerals under a piece of land, which in West Virginia can belong to someone other than the owner of the surface. Selling or leasing them does not touch the surface owner's house or fields.
Interest: The word for any ownership share in minerals, royalties, or a lease. On this site, "your interest" means the share of the minerals the records say you own. It has nothing to do with bank interest.
Fraction: How a share of minerals is written in a deed or will: one half, one eighth, three sixty-fourths. Shares get smaller each time an owner dies and leaves them to several children.
Net mineral acres: The tract's acreage multiplied by your fraction. Forty acres at one quarter is ten net mineral acres. The usual unit for pricing an unleased interest. More
Surface: The land itself, as opposed to the minerals under it. A tax parcel on the map shows who owns the surface, which is not proof of who owns the minerals.
Severed minerals: Minerals that were split from the surface by a deed, often a century ago, so the two are owned separately. Most inherited West Virginia mineral interests are severed.
Heir: A person who receives property when someone dies, under a will or, without a will, under state law. Being an heir is a reason to look at the records; it is not proof of title until the paperwork is recorded.
Chain of title: The unbroken sequence of recorded documents, deed to deed, will to will, that connects the person who first owned the minerals to you. Title review follows the chain and looks for gaps.
Co-owner, or co-tenant: One of several people who each own a share of the same minerals. Each can sell or lease their own share. A 2018 West Virginia law lets an operator develop a tract when the owners of three quarters of the interest agree.

The papers

Deed: The recorded document that transfers ownership. A mineral deed transfers minerals; its book and page number in the county clerk's office is how researchers find it.
Deed book and page: Where a document sits in the county clerk's records, such as Book 212, page 40. Every finding in a research brief cites one.
Will and probate: A will says who gets the property; probate is the county process that makes it official. A will that was never probated in West Virginia often has to be dealt with before an heir can sell, lease, or get paid.
Affidavit of heirship: A sworn statement, recorded at the county, listing who the heirs of a deceased owner are. Operators and buyers often accept it where no estate was opened.
Tax ticket: The county's annual property tax bill for a mineral interest. It shows how the interest is assessed and who the county thinks owns it. Not proof of ownership, and dangerous to ignore. More
Memorandum of lease: A short recorded notice that a lease exists, with the parties, the tract, and the term, but not the bonus or the royalty. Companies record it instead of the full lease.
Division order: The operator's statement of your decimal share of a well's production, sent for your signature before royalties are paid. Check the decimal; it is what the operator believes you own. More
Royalty statement: The paper or online detail that comes with a royalty check: wells, months, volumes, prices, deductions, taxes, and your decimal. The single most useful document you can show a researcher.
Reference code on a letter: A code printed on a letter from us that points to the public record that prompted it. Quote it and we can tell you exactly which record that was. More

The money

Royalty: Your share of what a well produces, paid in cash by the operator as long as the well produces and the lease allows. Usually written as a fraction of production, such as one eighth or three sixteenths.
Royalty decimal: Your royalty expressed as a decimal of the whole well or unit, such as 0.00312500. It combines your net acres, the unit's size, and the royalty fraction in the lease.
Bonus: The one-time payment a company makes for signing a lease, usually quoted per net mineral acre. Paid after the company confirms title, by check or by a bank draft honored later.
Deductions, or post-production costs: Costs an operator subtracts from royalties for gathering, compressing, processing, and transporting gas. Whether a lease allows them decides how much of the royalty reaches you.
Severance tax: West Virginia's tax on oil and gas taken out of the ground, usually withheld from royalty checks. Different from the property tax on the tax ticket.
Suspense: Money an operator holds back because it is not sure who to pay: an owner died, an address bounced, or title is unclear. It waits until the paperwork is fixed, then may go to the state as unclaimed property. More
Unclaimed property: Money a company could not deliver and handed to the State Treasurer after a waiting period. Royalties owed to heirs end up there often, and can be claimed free of charge. More
Benchmark price: The headline gas or oil price on the news: Henry Hub for gas, WTI for oil. Appalachian gas sells below Henry Hub, so the price on a royalty statement is lower. More
Initial indication: An early figure from a buyer, built on assumptions that title review has not yet confirmed. Labeled as an indication because it is not an offer and can change.

Wells and activity

Operator: The company that holds the permit, drills and runs the well, sells the production, and pays the royalties. Operators change when wells are sold.
API number: The ten-digit identifier every well carries, starting with 47 for West Virginia. It is printed on permits, royalty statements, and every well page on this site. More
Permit: State approval to drill a well, issued by the Department of Environmental Protection. A permit means a company intends to drill; it does not mean a well exists yet.
Completion: The work that makes a drilled well ready to produce, including hydraulic fracturing for shale wells. The completion year is the best public clue to a well's age.
Unit, or pooled unit: Several tracts combined so one horizontal well can drain them all. Each owner is paid in proportion to their acres in the unit, not to where the well sits.
Held by production: A lease that stays in force past its original term because a well on it keeps producing, sometimes for decades. An old shallow well can hold every depth under a tract.
Marcellus and Utica: The two shale layers that most new West Virginia wells target. Deeper and older than the formations the early wells reached, and reached today with long horizontal wells.
Plugged: A well that has been permanently sealed. Plugging ends production and, unless something else holds it, usually ends the lease too.

The deals

Lease: A contract giving a company the right to drill under your tract for a set time, in exchange for a bonus and a royalty. You keep the minerals. More
Primary term: The fixed number of years a lease runs before anything is drilled, often five. After it, the lease continues only if production or something else in the lease holds it.
Top lease: A new lease signed while an old one is still in force, taking effect only if the old one ends. The usual way to accept a better offer on leased minerals. More
Sale, or conveyance: Transferring the minerals to a buyer for one payment, by a recorded mineral deed. Permanent: the buyer gets every future royalty and bonus. More
Title review: A buyer's or lessee's check of the chain of title before paying. The step that takes the longest, and the reason a bonus or a purchase price arrives weeks after signing.
Closing: The signing, recording, and payment that finish a sale. The deed is signed before a notary, recorded at the county clerk, and payment follows the agreement.
Landman: A person who finds owners, checks title, and negotiates leases or purchases for a company. The person who knocks on the door or signs the letter.
Broker: Someone who markets your interest to buyers for a commission. This site is published by a buyer, not a broker.
Appraisal: An independent professional's opinion of value. Research from a buyer, including ours, is not one.

These are everyday explanations of how things usually work in West Virginia, written by a prospective buyer. They are not legal definitions and not legal advice. Deeds and leases mean what their own words say.