The word “Title” has several meanings, 13 total definitions provided by Merriam-Webster to be exact. It can be the name of a book or publication; a name that describes someone’s distinction, rank, or job; the designation as a champion of a particular sport. In our line of work, a “Title” is a right or claim to the ownership of property, but it goes well beyond that simple definition.
When I first started in the business as a landman, my world revolved around researching who owned the mineral rights to certain pieces of property. This involved running title back 100+ years to make ownership determination and move on to the next phase of the project. As a young, green, barely out of college “landman,” I had really limited knowledge about mineral title, but I was certain I was going to figure out who owned those rights!
As years went by and my “title” changed I became more involved with surface title projects. I thought to myself… “30-year surface title compared to 100-year mineral title…that must be a breeze to complete.” But as the great Lee Corso often says every Saturday morning around 11 o’clock during college football season, “Not so fast, my friends!” I soon found out that was not the case for many projects I have now been involved with.
Title is the Foundation
Each project, surface and/or minerals, has its own unique set of circumstances. Whether it is the location, schedule, staffing, or type of title required, all of these come into play when determining how the project will run and what is best to make it succeed. These factors are determined during the proposal process or at the onset of the project to ensure we have the right efficiencies in place and the information is relayed to the title team.
The title phase is normally the first phase on any given project once GIS has gathered the preliminary information. With the clock ticking immediately, pre-planning is very important so the title team can hit the ground running.
The Type of Title is Determined by the Client and Market
For midstream and transmission and distribution (“T&D”), it will almost always be 30-year surface title. The timeframe may be modified to suit the clients’ needs, but either way, we are usually only running surface ownership. These projects can be fast and furious. In order for the right-of-way team to obtain survey permissions and start acquiring easements to meet their deadline for construction to begin on time, the title has to be completed. It all circles back to the schedule, going back to the proposal process. And in the middle of the madness of running 30-year surface title, we also have requests from Survey so they can get plats generated in a timely manner. It all becomes a process in which multiple services are involved, working with each other, and at the end of the day, providing the client with a consistent, professional deliverable.
We have had instances where the scope of the project was 30-year surface title, and once we were complete, the client decided 60-year title was necessary in order to capture certain pipeline easements that needed to be included on the survey plats. This required us to immediately re-staff the project to run the title back a bit further and get the additional documents over to survey so the plats could still be produced in a timely manner without affecting any deadline the client had on their end. The fluidness of Percheron’s title department is a key efficiency to making every project a success.
The upstream and renewables markets require both surface and mineral title. These projects typically take longer to complete due to the additional research involved. As in midstream and T&D, the client ultimately decides on what will be required and how much research is actually needed. It can range from a runsheet or an abstract with the full history of a piece of land back to patent, to a “simple” mineral title run confirming the mineral rights owners only. I say “simple” because there is not as much research required as a runsheet or abstract, but any landman knows that mineral title alone can lead to countless hours and sleepless nights when you are on a tight deadline. Just like surface title, once the research is gathered, it is entered into our database and a clean, consistent, professional deliverable is ready to send to the client.
There are times when we are working off the client’s drill schedule and these deadlines must be met in order to achieve overall success of the drilling unit. Runsheets or abstracts must be completed consistently and sent to the title attorney for review in order for another task related to title begins, being title curative, to resolve any issues or clouds in the chain of title before royalties are paid. In a perfect world, all of these tasks are complete prior to drilling the well so the client can check off all the boxes and cross their fingers there will be no issues, but we all know that is too good to be true most of the time. We will staff up and down at various times in a project to meet the needs of whichever task needs to be complete at that time, or sometimes it is a continuous cycle that keeps revolving for the duration of the project. Either way, we stand up to the challenge and make the project a success to benefit our client and ensure they are getting the best product on time, every time.
There are other instances where a title component is needed that cater more to another service line rather than just an end market. An example would be Survey. Our survey group will send a request for copies of referenced easements or deeds and source deeds for adjacent properties to incorporate into plats. Another example would be Environmental requesting to run title back to a certain date for information regarding a particular landmark or easement. Percheron has made an attempt to integrate title into all markets and services in order to be more efficient and cost-effective for all clients…and I think it has been a successful endeavor so far.
As you can see, title is more of a process rather than just a thing or specific project task. There are a lot of moving parts and it can be challenging at times to work through the hurdles to make sure the project succeeds.
So, the next time you hear the word title, you will know there is more to the meaning than just “ownership of property.” Percheron has a fully integrated title department that will accommodate the requests of any client in any end market, working together with the other Percheron service lines to ensure our #1 goal…client satisfaction.
By: Larry Kocurek
Larry is a Managing Director for Percheron, LLC, with 15+ years of industry experience in both midstream and upstream operations. In his previous position as Director, Title & Curative, Larry oversaw Percheron’s title department for all title and curative projects across the United States. Larry is an active member of the American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL), Houston Association of Professional Landmen (HAPL), and the West Houston Association of Professional Landmen (WHAPL). He earned his CPL certification through the AAPL in 2013. Larry has been a member of the Percheron Safety Committee; and currently serves on the Board of Directors for WashFest, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, that benefits local charities and scholarships for pediatric cancer patients.