Surface and Mineral Rights Are Often Owned Separately Here

Winkler County sits in the Permian Basin, one of the busiest oil regions in the country, and a century of leasing and selling has cut the ground in half here: the dirt you'd walk on and the oil and gas below it. Buy a piece of land and you may own only the top of it. The deed is where you find out, so read it closely before you sign and never take it for granted that the minerals come with the surface.

Texas law calls the mineral estate the dominant one. The mineral owner, or the oil company holding their lease, can come onto your surface to drill and produce, as long as they do it in a reasonable way. You don't get a veto over that.

Wells, drilling permits, and the safety side of all this fall to the Railroad Commission of Texas. What it won't do is referee your lease terms or a royalty fight, which both go to civil court. Its website is where you look up the wells, operators, and production tied to a specific tract, which is worth doing before you make an offer on land out here.