Ohio gives a surface owner two independent statutory routes to take your severed minerals, and the Ohio Supreme Court has confirmed both work.
This is the whole guide, on one page, free, with nothing gated. It covers what you own, the Ohio law that decides what lands in your bank account, whether your minerals can be taken from you, what happens if a well is drilled and you are not leased, what you owe when you sell, and the questions worth asking any buyer including us.
Almost every confusing thing in oil and gas comes from the fact that the mineral estate is not one thing. It is a bundle of five rights that can be split apart and sold separately:
A mineral interest is all five. A non-participating royalty interest is only the fifth, with no say in leasing and no share of bonus. An overriding royalty interest is carved out of a particular lease and dies when that lease dies. A working interest takes revenue net of costs and, unlike all of the above, can lose you money.
Which one you hold changes the value, the tax treatment, and who has to sign what. Start here: NPRIs, overriding royalties, and the glossary.
It depends entirely on your lease, because **Ohio has no statewide rule**. In *Lutz v. Chesapeake Appalachia, L.L.C.*, 148 Ohio St.3d 524 (2016), the Ohio Supreme Court declined to adopt either the at the well rule or the marketable product rule, holding that a lease is a contract subject to traditional rules of construction. Your specific words are the whole answer.
Your first move if the deductions look wrong is a written demand by certified mail, keeping the receipt, because the certification is what starts the clock. Our free letter templates have the wording and the statement decoder explains every line on the stub.
Governed by lease and general law rather than a comprehensive payment timing statute.
| Minimum payment rule | Not set by statute. |
| Time limit to sue over an underpayment | Governed by general contract limitations |
A stopped check very often is not a stopped well. The usual causes are a balance under the minimum threshold, a title change putting the interest in suspense, an unprobated death in the chain, an address the payor could not deliver to, or a change of payor after an acquisition. That money does not disappear; it sits in suspense and eventually goes to state unclaimed property. See unclaimed royalties.
**Yes, and there are two of them.** The **Dormant Mineral Act at R.C. 5301.56** lets a surface owner reclaim a severed mineral interest after **20 years** with no savings event, following a notice and affidavit procedure. Separately the **Marketable Title Act at R.C. 5301.47 and following** can extinguish an interest not referenced in the record chain for 40 years. Savings events under R.C. 5301.56 include a recorded title transaction, actual production or withdrawal, use for underground gas storage, a drilling or mining permit plus a recorded affidavit, a recorded claim to preserve, or the creation of a separate tax parcel number. In *Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C.*, 2016-Ohio-5796, the court held the 1989 version does not operate automatically and the surface owner must bring a quiet title action.
Yes, Ohio has unitization and pooling authority through the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.
The reason any of this exists is the rule of capture: a well on the tract next to yours can legally drain oil and gas from under your land, and you cannot sue anyone for it. Pooling is what converts being drained into having a share. The expensive mistake is almost never the pooling itself. It is missing the election deadline, which turns a real choice into a default nobody picked.
Severance tax. 10 cents per barrel of oil and 2.5 cents per Mcf of gas under R.C. 5749.02. Because the tax is a flat amount per unit rather than a percentage of value, the effective burden falls sharply as prices rise. Ohio's severance tax is among the lowest in the country.
When you sell. Ohio has a graduated income tax and taxes nonresidents on Ohio source income. No withholding at closing on a real property sale.
See taxes when you sell mineral rights, and if you inherited the interest, understand the stepped-up basis before you sell anything: your basis is generally the value at the date of death, not what your grandparents paid, which frequently means far less taxable gain than owners expect.
Ohio probate is required to move a mineral interest at death. **Unprobated estates are especially dangerous in Ohio** because they leave nothing recorded in the chain, which is exactly what the Dormant Mineral Act and Marketable Title Act look for.
The single most common thing we see is an interest still sitting in the name of someone who died twenty or forty years ago. It is fixable, it is cheaper to fix than to leave, and we pay for the curative work as part of a purchase. See inherited mineral rights, selling before probate is done, and transferring inherited minerals.
Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management for well records, and the County Recorder in each of 88 counties for land records.
Our well records by state page links every state's free public search, and our operator directory covers more than 38,000 operators with contact information refreshed weekly.
Producing royalties are priced off cash flow and decline. Non-producing minerals are priced off location and activity. Almost every offer you receive is built the same way: take your last twelve months of royalty income and apply a multiple.
That method has one predictable failure, and it is worth understanding because it is where most owners lose money. It assigns a value of zero to anything that has not happened yet. A permit next door. An undrilled bench under your section. A refrac on an old wellbore. A unit being formed. None of that is in last year's income, so none of it is in the offer.
Ask any buyer, including us, to show you their remaining location count and the reasoning behind it. If they will not break it out, they are pricing your check rather than your minerals. See how mineral rights are valued.
You are welcome to use every one of these on us. That is the point of publishing them.
A check stub, an old deed, a division order, a pooling order, or just the county. We will identify the interest, value it with the arithmetic shown, and tell you honestly if you should keep it. Free, no obligation, and no mailing list.
Get a Free Valuation Ask a LandmanLast reviewed August 2026. Statutes, rates, and case law change, and where Ohio law is genuinely unsettled we have said so rather than filling the gap. Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm or a tax advisor, and this guide is general information rather than advice about your interest. For a dispute worth real money, hire a lawyer in Ohio.