Practical commentary on title, ownership, and due diligence — written for the people who have to act on it.
Industry Headlines
Oil and gas news tracked alongside our own title commentary, updated throughout the day.
Formation-level conveyances rarely line up with the way modern development targets the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring. A lateral can cross a severance mid-hole and change who owns the production behind it.
Read NoteAssignment history, segregations, and suspensions live in the lease file, not the county records. What to pull, in what order, and what each document actually tells you about current ownership.
Read NoteThe defects most likely to reach closing undetected, why standard diligence checklists miss them, and the additional steps that catch them before they price the deal.
Read NoteOn federal acreage the two can sit with different parties at different depths. Conflating them is one of the most common errors in federal title work, and one of the most expensive.
Read NoteAffidavits of heirship carry different weight in Texas and New Mexico. When an affidavit is enough, when probate is required, and how to document the difference for a title opinion.
Read NoteOverriding royalties accumulate across assignment chains and are frequently understated in acquisition models. How to build the burden stack from the record rather than from the seller's schedule.
Read NoteIndustry Sources
The public records and datasets this practice works from daily. Linked directly so you can pull the primary source yourself.
Drilling permits, completions, production queries, and the P-4 and W-1 filings behind operator and well status.
RRC Data SetsWell files, C-102 plats, pooling orders, and OCD hearing records for southeast New Mexico development.
OCD RecordsFederal lease serial registers, assignment and transfer history, segregations, suspensions, and unit agreements.
BLM Land RecordsState lease status, assignment records, and the Trust land tracts that sit alongside federal and fee acreage.
NMSLOOfficial US price series, storage, rig counts, and Permian regional production behind the ticker at the top of this page.
EIA DataWeekly North American rig counts by basin — the leading indicator for where title and leasing work is about to land.
Rig Count
If something here applies to a tract you are working, we are glad to talk it through.
