Skip to content
Royalty Clerk

Texas leases · 186 counties · state records since 1993

Estate, heirs and trust leases in Texas

5,877 Texas oil and gas leases that reported for a year or more since 2020 carry ESTATE, HEIRS or TRUST in the name filed with the Railroad Commission, and 3,716 of them still produce. 4,458 more with these words stopped before 2020. 1,685 of them were already reporting in January 1993, when the state’s monthly records begin. Find the family name, open the lease and see what it has produced, through Aug 2026.

Leases
5,8772,929 estate · 1,005 heirs · 1,943 trust
Producing now
3,716
Reporting since Jan 1993
1,685
Stopped before 2020
4,458no page

Most estate, heirs and trust leases

Crockett County leads

  1. Crockett County345 producing425leases
  2. Webb County298 producing372leases
  3. Starr County195 producing329leases
  4. Rusk County192 producing289leases
  5. Zapata County148 producing199leases
  6. Harrison County99 producing187leases

Don’t see your relative’s name in the lease title?

Only a fraction of Texas leases carry the owner’s name in the lease title—most mineral owners hold a royalty share inside a lease named for the original ranch or survey. Search 146 Texas county mineral appraisal rolls by your relative’s name to see every lease they are listed on.

Still producing

On the state's books for 33 years, still producing

Each of these was already reporting in January 1993 and sold oil or gas in the last 12 months. The most output first.
Estate, heirs and trust leases producing since January 1993: lease, county, operator and last 12 months of output
LeaseCountyLast 12 months
Slaughter Estate UnitHockley346,663 bbl
Montgomery Estate-Davies NCT-2Hockley166,028 bbl
Shannon EstateCrockett138,797 bbl
Pierce EstatesWharton53,665 bbl
Tyrrell, W. C. TrustPecos325,575 mcf
Masterson EstateMoore43,013 bbl
Slaughter, A. A. EstateHockley36,702 bbl
Burnett, S. B. Estate "D"King32,133 bbl
Eaton, G. W. EstateAnderson17,972 bbl
Gordin EstateJackson17,894 bbl
Cowden Estate Et AlAndrews17,685 bbl
Post Estate "A"Garza20,237 bbl

By county

Find the county

110 counties have ten or more of these leases, each with its own list. The 76 with fewer are listed in full below.

Counties with fewer than ten (76)

In 13 more counties (Aransas, Borden, Cameron, Concho, Cottle, Edwards, Ellis, Falls, Franklin, McMullen, Sabine, Titus, Walker), every lease with these words stopped before 2020.

A family name on a lease is where an heir starts

The name shows whose land it was when the lease was signed, often decades ago. It does not show who owns the minerals today: that is in the county clerk’s deed records and on the appraisal district’s mineral roll. When an owner dies, the company that pays usually holds the checks until the heirs show who inherited.

If someone in your family owned minerals in Texas, the estate report searches the county appraisal rolls by their name, adds up what each interest earned from the state’s records, splits it among the heirs and writes a letter to each company that pays. Searching the name is free; the full report is $199 once.

Search their name, freeSee a sample report

Not legal advice. Who inherits is for the will, or Texas law when there is none. How an affidavit of heirship works.

FAQ

Questions about estate leases

Does a lease named for an estate mean the estate still owns the minerals?

No. The operator files the lease name with the Railroad Commission, usually when the lease is signed, and rarely changes it. It names whose land it was then. Who owns the minerals today is in the county clerk's deed records and on the appraisal district's mineral roll, and an interest is often split among many heirs by now.

Which leases are on this page?

Every Texas lease with twelve or more months of production reported since January 2020 whose name holds the word ESTATE, HEIRS or TRUST: 5,877 leases in 186 counties, reported through Aug 2026. A name with two of the words is counted once. Leases named only for a ranch are not counted here.

What does the first year mean?

It is the first year the lease shows in the state's monthly production records, which begin in January 1993. A lease shown since 1993 may be much older; it was already producing when the records start.

A lease I know is not here. Why?

Its name may not use one of the three words, it may have fewer than twelve months of reports since 2020, or it may have stopped before 2020: 4,458 leases with these words reported only between 1993 and 2019. They have no page, and each county page lists the ones with the most production, with the district and lease number to look up. Any lease can be searched by name or number.

Look up a lease

Someone in my family owned minerals. How do I find what they had?

Start with their name, not the lease name. The county appraisal rolls list mineral interests by owner. The estate report searches them by name, adds up what each interest earned, estimates the value at the date of death and writes a letter to each company that pays. Seeing how many accounts the rolls hold under the name is free.

The estate mineral report

Related

Keep going

Found the family name?

The estate report starts from a name. Seeing how many accounts the county rolls hold under it is free.

See what they owned