Most closings in Midland move fast once the buyer sits down. Loan documents first, then the settlement statement, then a stack of title paperwork that everyone flips through looking for a signature line rather than a sentence to read. Somewhere in that stack sits Schedule B of the title commitment, and somewhere on Schedule B sits a paragraph about a prior reservation of oil, gas, and other minerals. Almost nobody stops on that paragraph. It reads like boilerplate because in West Texas, it is boilerplate. It shows up on the vast majority of residential resales in this part of the state.
Midland County has recorded 16,243 wells drilled between January 1993 and February 2026, according to well data compiled by MineralAnswers.com, and the county still ranks second in the state for barrels of oil equivalent produced in the most recent reporting month. That density of drilling history is exactly why so many residential lots in Midland sit on land where the minerals were split off from the surface a generation or more ago, long before the current house was ever built.
The part that catches buyers off guard isn't the well count. It's the assumption that the standard protections already cover this. They don't, not automatically. And the fix that actually matters for a house on a normal residential lot costs as little as fifty dollars, if you know to ask for it before you sign anything.
The Deed Doesn't Have to Mention Minerals to Take Them With It
Texas has long treated the mineral estate as legally separate from the surface estate, and where the two have been severed, the mineral owner's rights sit above the surface owner's. A Texas real estate law firm summarizing the rule for buyers put it plainly: "Mineral estates in Texas are superior to the rights of the surface estate," pointing to the Texas Supreme Court's decisions in Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Williams (1967) and Ball v. Dillard (1980) as the foundation for that principle, in a purchase and sale guide from Winstead PC.
Once a severance happens, it stays in place through every future sale of the surface, unless a later deed specifically deals with it. The current deed doesn't need to say a word about minerals for that older severance to still control. That's the part buyers get backwards. Silence on a deed doesn't mean nothing was ever reserved. It usually means whatever a previous owner reserved decades ago is still sitting there, unaffected by the sale currently in front of you.
Buyers assume that if nobody mentions minerals, there's nothing to think about. In Midland, it's usually the opposite. Silence just means whatever happened three owners ago is still the operative fact.
If minerals under a specific tract were never severed, then the standard rule for a Texas conveyance still applies: whatever mineral interest the seller actually holds transfers with the sale unless the deed carves it out. That's a different situation from a lot with a decades-old severance already baked into the chain of title, and a title search is the only way to tell which situation you're actually in.
Midland's Own Ordinance Puts a Number on "How Close"
Severance explains who owns what beneath the surface. It doesn't answer the question most buyers actually care about, which is how close a well could legally get to the house.
The City of Midland has its own ordinance governing that question, and it isn't abstract. Under Ordinance 8769, a well can be permitted as close as 500 feet to a residence before it requires a variance, and a variance requires approval from City Council, according to the City of Midland's Oil and Gas Services FAQ. Inside that 500-foot threshold, permitting is routine. A drilling application gets reviewed by staff from Oil & Gas Services, the Fire Department, Engineering, Transportation, Utilities, Planning, and Legal before it goes to Council, but for anything at or beyond 500 feet, that review is the standard path, not the exception.
A few other numbers from the same city source are worth knowing before you assume this is a rare event:
- Drilling runs 24 hours a day with no time-of-day restriction once it starts
- A typical well takes 15 to 30 days to drill, then another 10 to 20 days to complete for production
- Producing wells are fenced and visited regularly by operator staff for maintenance and compliance checks
- Wells typically produce for around 30 years before they're capped
None of this means a well is coming to any specific address. It means the city's own rulebook treats 500 feet as the default distance, not a hard line, and that's a different picture than most buyers carry into a purchase.
Two Insurance Endorsements, Two Very Different Price Tags
A standard owner's title policy in Texas takes exception to mineral matters on Schedule B by default. That exception means the policy won't cover damage to your home caused by someone exercising a mineral right to use the surface, which is precisely the scenario Ordinance 8769 makes routine.
There's a fix, and it comes in two forms with very different costs. The T-19.1 endorsement, available to an owner, insures against damage to buildings, structures, roads, walkways, driveways, and curbs resulting from mineral development, though it specifically excludes crops, landscaping, lawns, shrubbery, or trees. A Texas real estate attorney board certified in commercial and residential real estate law breaks down the cost this way in a published overview of Texas title insurance mineral coverage: 10 percent of the residential owner's policy premium if purchased alone, or 5 percent if purchased together with the survey exception amendment.
The narrower T-19.2 endorsement covers the same category of damage, and under the Texas Department of Insurance's own procedural rules it's meant for improved residential property of one acre or less intended for one-to-four family use, exactly the shape of most Midland house lots. The cost for a residential or commercial owner's policy is a flat fifty dollars, and there's no charge at all to add it to a lender's policy, according to the Denton Law Group's breakdown of Texas title insurance mineral coverage. The Texas Department of Insurance lists both forms with an effective date of November 1, 2024, in its Basic Manual of Title Insurance. Texas also regulates title insurance differently than most states: a title company here cannot offer discounts or rate reductions outside what the state has already approved, as a continuing education paper for the Texas Land Title Association explains.
Here's the asymmetry worth sitting with. Most Midland buyers on a standard house lot don't need the broader, more expensive T-19.1. They need exactly what T-19.2 covers: protection for the house itself against surface damage from mineral development, on a typical residential lot, for fifty dollars. And it's the endorsement almost nobody asks for, because nobody explains that it exists separately from the survey conversation buyers are already used to having.
What This Means When You're the One Signing
If you're under contract on a home in Midland, ask your title company two specific things before closing. First, whether Schedule B shows a prior mineral reservation, and if so, how far back the severance goes. Second, whether the property qualifies for the T-19.2 endorsement, and if the fifty-dollar addition is already built into your quote or needs to be requested separately.
For homes in established parts of town where lots have changed hands many times, the severance can trace back well before the current structure was built, and no title company can undo that history. What they can do is price a policy that protects the house going forward. That's a narrower promise than most buyers assume they're getting, and it's worth knowing the difference before you're staring at Schedule B with a pen in your hand.
For anything more complicated, particularly acreage or a property where the mineral history is genuinely unclear, this is where a mineral-focused real estate attorney earns their fee. Midland has firms built around exactly this kind of title work, including Stubbeman, McRae, Sealy, Laughlin & Browder, a Midland-based practice that has handled mineral title examination and lease negotiation in this market since 1936.
FAQ
Does the 500-foot rule only matter for homes near open land? No. Ordinance 8769 applies to permitted wells anywhere inside Midland city limits, and the 500-foot threshold is the standard distance regardless of whether the lot sits inside an established subdivision or on the edge of town. Anything closer requires a variance and City Council approval, but 500 feet and beyond follows the routine permitting path.
Can I still get a mortgage on a house with a mineral reservation on the deed? Yes. Lenders in Midland finance these homes routinely. Lenders carry their own loan policy, and the T-19 series endorsements come at no additional cost on a lender's policy. The fee only applies to the owner's policy, which is the coverage that protects you, not the bank.
Does a mineral reservation lower what a house is worth on resale? For a typical in-town residential resale, appraisers and lenders in this market are used to seeing a mineral reservation somewhere in the chain of title, since it's been common practice across the region for decades. The more useful question isn't whether minerals were reserved. It's whether the owner's policy on the house includes an endorsement that actually protects the structure if that reservation is ever exercised.
If you're weighing a purchase or a listing in Midland and want a straight read on what's actually sitting in Schedule B before you're at the closing table, let's connect. I go through title commitments the same way I go through a lease or a survey, line by line, so nothing surprises you after you've already signed.
