Do you own the minerals under the Texas land you are buying?

Probably not all of them, and possibly none. Texas recognizes a severed mineral estate: the minerals can be owned separately from the dirt, and once severed they stay severed forever. The mineral estate is also the dominant estate, carrying an implied right to make reasonable use of the surface to develop what is beneath it. Minerals do not convey unless the deed conveys them.

What does it mean that the mineral estate is severed?

A Texas landowner starts out owning the surface and everything under it. The moment an owner reserves the minerals in a deed, or conveys them to somebody else, the tract splits into two estates that can be sold, inherited, divided, and taxed independently.

That split is permanent. A reservation made in 1948 by a grantor four generations dead still governs the tract today, and the current seller may not know it exists. Because minerals divide by inheritance as easily as by deed, one 300-acre tract in North Texas can have dozens of co-owners in a dozen states, each holding a fraction measured in decimals.

The mineral estate carries five rights, and they too can be split apart:

Somebody can hold a royalty with no executive right, or an executive right over minerals they barely own. "The seller says he has half the minerals" is a starting point, not an answer.

Why is the mineral estate called the dominant estate?

Because Texas law gives the mineral owner an implied right to use as much of the surface as is reasonably necessary to get the minerals out — without asking you, and without paying you for the ground they use.

This is the point most buyers find shocking. You can own 200 acres in fee, hold clear title, pay every dollar of the tax bill, and still have an operator arrive with rigs, tanks, caliche pads, and roads across your hay meadow. The mineral estate is dominant; the surface estate serves it.

The limit is the accommodation doctrine. In Getty Oil Co. v. Jones, 470 S.W.2d 618 (Tex. 1971), the Texas Supreme Court held that a mineral owner may be required to accommodate an existing surface use where operations preclude or impair that use and reasonable alternatives exist under established industry practice. The court extended the same doctrine to a severed groundwater estate in Coyote Lake Ranch, LLC v. City of Lubbock (Tex. 2016) — one reason the water rights page belongs beside this one.

Read the doctrine honestly. It protects an existing use, not a planned one, and only where alternatives exist. It is not a veto. What actually protects a surface owner is a negotiated surface use agreement, and the time to get one is before a lease is signed.

Do minerals convey with the deed?

They convey whatever the seller owns, unless the deed says otherwise. A Texas general warranty deed silent on minerals conveys whatever mineral interest the grantor holds. Silence in your deed is not the problem.

The problem sits upstream. If a prior owner reserved the minerals in 1948, the seller never owned them, and no language in your deed can convey what the seller does not have. Two different questions:

1. What did the seller actually own? Answered by the chain of title, not by the seller.
2. What does this contract convey and reserve? Answered by the deed and the contract, and it is negotiable. Sellers commonly reserve half of what they own.

How does the title commitment show a mineral reservation?

Schedule B lists the exceptions to coverage. Prior mineral reservations, oil and gas leases, and royalty conveyances appear there, cited to the volume and page of the recorded instrument. Pull them and read them — the one-line Schedule B description tells you a reservation exists, but only the document tells you what it says.

Two things about what title insurance does and does not do:

• A Texas owner's policy takes an exception for minerals. It does not insure that you own them.
• The T-19.1 Restrictions, Encroachments, Minerals endorsement insures against damage to improvements — buildings, structures, roads, walkways, driveways, curbs — from a future exercise of the right to use the surface for extraction. It excludes crops, landscaping, lawns, shrubbery, and trees, and it gives you title to nothing. The T-19.3 Minerals and Surface Damage endorsement covers similar ground outside the residential form.

The Railroad Commission of Texas publishes a public GIS map viewer showing permitted, producing, and plugged wells. Look at your tract on it before you make an offer. Property Code §5.013 separately requires a seller of unimproved property intended for residential use to disclose transportation pipeline locations.

What do you ask before you sign?

What does a severed mineral estate actually do to the land?

Less than a nervous buyer fears, and more than a hopeful seller admits.

What it does not do. It does not cloud your surface title. It does not stop you building, running cattle, fencing, or borrowing. Across much of North Texas the minerals were severed generations ago, and land trades every week with none attached and no discount, because the local market has priced it in.

What it does do. It removes an income stream. It exposes the surface to development you cannot refuse. It can complicate a homesite, a conservation plan, or a subdivision under Local Government Code Ch. 232. In an active play it changes what the land is worth to a buyer counting on royalties.

A severed mineral estate is a fact to be priced, not a defect to be feared. What matters is knowing before you write the offer.

How do you run the mineral question?

1. Look at the tract on the Railroad Commission map viewer before you make an offer.
2. Order the title commitment, read every Schedule B exception, and pull the underlying instruments.
3. Ask the seller in writing what mineral interest they own and what they will convey.
4. Put the mineral language in the contract, not in a conversation.
5. If minerals matter to your number, hire a landman for a runsheet and an oil and gas attorney for a title opinion.
6. Negotiate a surface use agreement if a lease exists or is likely, and price the answer into the offer.

We will not render a mineral title opinion, and no broker should. Determining who owns what fraction of a Texas mineral estate is a landman-and-attorney job that runs the county records back to sovereignty. Our part is knowing when the question is material, saying so early, and putting the right people around the table — the standard we describe in choosing a Texas land broker.

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy Texas land with all the minerals included?

Sometimes, where the minerals were never severed or a long-term owner still holds them. It is uncommon in producing regions and commands a premium when it exists. Never assume it. Verify the interest through the recorded chain of title before you pay for it in the price.

Can a mineral owner really drill in my pasture without asking me?

Under the implied right of reasonable surface use, yes — the mineral estate is dominant. The accommodation doctrine from Getty Oil Co. v. Jones limits that right where an existing surface use would be impaired and reasonable alternatives exist. A recorded surface use agreement is the practical protection, and it must be negotiated.

If the deed does not mention minerals, do I get them?

You get whatever the seller owned. A Texas general warranty deed conveys the grantor's full interest unless it reserves something. The risk is not silence in your deed; it is a reservation made by an owner decades ago, which no later deed can undo. That is what the title commitment and the chain of title are for.

What is a surface use agreement?

A recorded contract between the surface owner and the mineral owner or lessee setting where operations may go, what roads and pads may be built, what is paid for surface damage, what is off limits, and how the site is restored. It is the most useful document a surface owner can hold, and leverage to get one is highest before a lease is signed.

Does title insurance cover my mineral rights?

No. A Texas owner's policy excepts minerals and does not insure that you own them. The T-19.1 endorsement insures against damage to improvements from a future exercise of surface rights for extraction, and it excludes crops, landscaping, lawns, shrubbery, and trees. Ask your title company what is available on your file.

Sources and method

Sources and method

Texas mineral estate severance and the dominant estate doctrine · Getty Oil Co. v. Jones, 470 S.W.2d 618 (Tex. 1971) · Coyote Lake Ranch, LLC v. City of Lubbock (Tex. 2016) · Texas Property Code §5.013, pipeline disclosure for unimproved residential property · Texas Department of Insurance promulgated endorsement forms T-19.1 and T-19.3 · Railroad Commission of Texas public GIS map viewer · Verified August 2026. Mineral ownership is determined by the recorded chain of title for the specific tract, and no general guide can tell you what a particular deed reserved. Confirm ownership with a landman and an oil and gas attorney, and confirm the title exceptions with the title company issuing your commitment, before you rely on anything here. This is general information, not legal advice.

Send us the county and the tract. We will pull the Railroad Commission map, read the Schedule B exceptions with you, and tell you whether the mineral question is material enough to hire a landman before you write an offer. Start at Texas Land & Ranch.

The Agency Dallas is independently owned and operated by Damon & Megan Williamson.

Damon Williamson, Broker-Owner · Licensed Real Estate Agent, State of Texas.

Dallas, Dallas County, Texas 75205. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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