If your clients own oil and gas mineral rights, are they getting paid everything they are owed? Are they aware of all the drilling activity in their interests? Do the operators of those wells even know it’s your clients that own the rights and where to find them?
These are everyday questions in the world of oil and gas investments. Operators constantly need help locating the owners of the assets where they are drilling because the rights have changed hands countless times through generations. Additionally, the conveyance documents may have errors, or the deeds are not recorded accurately. These frequent issues cause operators to lose track of the entity or individuals that own the land or the minerals beneath. They know they owe money, but they don’t know to whom. In these instances, the operator must set aside the money in a “suspended funds” account. Once moved to these accounts, it is not on the operator to continue to locate the correct owners. At that point, the burden is on the owners to locate their suspended funds!
In other cases, an owner of mineral rights may receive payments from operators, but the payments don’t reflect the total value of the production volume at today’s oil and gas prices. Such cases rarely happen because of negligence or malicious intent. They are simply due to disorganized paperwork, outdated information, and a need for more transparency in transactions. Mineral asset owners or managers need the ability to identify active-producing assets from which they are not receiving revenue. Secondly, they need to track reported production volumes to determine whether they are receiving accurate and complete payments.
Unlocking suspended funds and ensuring accurate monthly revenues are just some of the advantages of using SS&C MineralWare to track and manage oil and gas investments. Wealth and asset managers, banks, trusts, and family offices use MineralWare to manage risks and help investors derive the full value from this complex asset class.
Among clients undergoing an audit of their mineral holdings using MineralWare, nearly 93% found they had funds held in suspense. Since 2014, MineralWare has recovered more than $3 million in suspended funds for their clients, with an average recovery per client of nearly $243,000. In a big oil state such as Texas, those funds would have gone to the state if they were unclaimed after ten years.
To learn more about how SS&C MineralWare can support your unique business, visit www.mineralware.com, call 817-735-8195, or email contact@mineralware.com
