A royalty check can only be as right as the share it is paid on. That share is stated on a division order and applied to every payment until something it describes changes. A gap of 0.00001 against fifty million dollars of unit revenue is five hundred dollars [1]. Checking the number takes about a minute.

A division order is the document that tells you what share of a well’s revenue the payor, the company paying you, intends to send you. Its economic content is a single number, the decimal interest. The decimal is net mineral acres divided by unit acres, multiplied by the lease royalty rate [1].

Texas is the worked example, because it produced 42 percent of US crude oil in 2025, more than any other state [13]. Its Natural Resources Code Section 91.402, the statute on paying oil and gas proceeds, lists what a division order may contain and when you must be paid [2]. This post is for mineral and royalty owners who hold one. It covers what the document may contain, how to check the decimal, when Texas says you must be paid, and how eight other states differ.

Quick Answer: A division order states your decimal interest in a well’s proceeds and certifies title to that share [2]. It is not a deed, and signing one does not convey your mineral rights. The decimal is net mineral acres divided by unit acres, times the royalty rate. As a condition of payment, Texas lets a payor require a division order with only seven listed provisions [2]. First proceeds are due within 120 days after the end of the month of first sale [2].

A Division Order Divides Proceeds, It Does Not Rewrite the Lease

A division order is an administrative instrument rather than a new bargain. Texas states what one may contain, and the list is short [2]. A division order may carry the effective date and a description of the property and type of production [2]. It may also carry the interest claimed, its type, a title certification, and agreements to notify changes and indemnify the payor [2].

The rest of the permitted list is administrative. It covers authorization to suspend payment until a title dispute or adverse claim is resolved [2]. It also covers the payee’s name, address and taxpayer identification number [2]. The last two items are provisions for valuation and timing of settlements, and a notification that other statutory rights may be available [2].

Seven lettered items make up the list, and subsection (d) offers a statutory form that also satisfies it [2]. Anything beyond them is worth reading twice, because refusing to sign over extra terms is not, alone, a ground to withhold payment [2].

Certifying Title Is Not the Same as Amending It

A division order is not a deed, a lease, or an amendment to either. The certification in it confirms the share claimed rather than conveying anything. A signature on it is a statement about what you own, not a change to what you own. Your mineral rights come from the deed and your royalty from the lease, and neither moves because you signed a payment document.

That distinction is why an added clause matters so much. A document that ratifies a lease or changes a royalty calculation is doing more than dividing proceeds. Owners in that position may want legal advice before signing.

How to Check Your Decimal Interest

For the ordinary case the arithmetic is one line. Divide your net mineral acres by the unit acres to get your share of the unit, then multiply by your royalty rate. Forty acres in a 640 acre unit is 6.25 percent of the unit, and at a three-sixteenths royalty that is a decimal of 0.01171875 [1].

Each input comes from a different document, which is where the errors enter. Net mineral acres come from the deed, unit acres from the plat or pooling declaration, and the royalty rate from the lease. A division order that disagrees with any of the three is worth a question before signature.

Provenance diagram for a royalty decimal. Three source documents feed one multiplication: the deed supplies 40 net mineral acres, the plat or pooling declaration supplies 640 unit acres, and the lease supplies a three-sixteenths royalty rate. Together they give a decimal of 0.01171875. A note records that this covers one tract in one unit, and that an allocation or production sharing well adds a further factor.

Each input is established by a different instrument, which is where a wrong decimal can enter. The arithmetic is one multiplication; the documents are three.

When the One Line Does Not Reproduce Your Decimal

The one line assumes one tract, one unit and one royalty rate. A well producing from more than one unit or unpooled lease divides its production among them first. A further factor then sits between your acreage and your decimal. Allocation wells and production sharing agreement wells are the common Texas examples.

A decimal the one line cannot reproduce is not necessarily wrong. It is a reason to ask which figures the payor used. The calculator below covers one tract pooled into one unit. It does not cover overriding royalties, non-participating royalty interests, working interests net of costs, or title questions.

Small decimal differences look immaterial and are not. A gap of 0.00001 against a million dollars of unit revenue is ten dollars [1]. The decimal stays in effect until something it describes changes, so the difference recurs on every payment until then.

Check the Well’s Production Behind the Decimal

Identifying the right well is part of the check. The property description on the division order should match the unit you believe you are in. In Texas the well record is searchable at the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), the state’s oil and gas regulator, as set out in RRC Wellbore Query: How to Find Any Texas Well Record. Where a well is identified by its API number, the unique number that identifies a US well, reading it is covered in API Well Number Lookup: What It Is and How to Read One.

A correct decimal is half of a correct royalty check. The other half is the volume the well produced, and that volume is reported to the state. In Texas it is reported by lease; an oil lease can hold many wells, while a gas lease holds one gas well [12]. The RRC’s Production Data Query (PDQ), its public search of reported volumes, gives those lease totals by month [12].

TetraSoft Atlas, our subscription platform, joins well, production, emissions and enforcement records on one map [11]. It covers Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming, which produced 68 percent of US crude oil and 83 percent of US marketed gas in 2025 [13][14]. We plan to expand Atlas to every US state [11]. Selecting a well shows its operator, status and reported production, so you can see whether it is still producing before you question a payment.

The 7-day trial is self-serve and needs no credit card [11].

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What Texas Law Says About Signing and Being Paid

Texas puts royalty payment on a statutory clock [2]. Proceeds from a first sale must be paid on or before 120 days after that month ends [2]. Unless a lease or written agreement sets the timing, subsequent oil is due within 60 days after the end of its sale month [2]. Subsequent gas is due within 90 days on the same basis [2].

Bar chart of Texas royalty deadlines: 120 days for first payment, then 60 for oil and 90 for gas absent a lease schedule

Texas royalty payment deadlines under Natural Resources Code 91.402(a); the 60 and 90 day limits apply only where the lease sets no timing.

The signing question has a more precise answer than it is usually given. An owner may refuse to sign because the order contains provisions beyond those the section provides for [2]. The payor may not withhold payment solely because of that refusal [2]. If the division order contains only the statutory provisions and the owner still refuses, the payor may withhold payment without interest until it is signed [2].

The difference between those two cases is what the document contains. An owner who refuses a plain statutory division order can be held out of payment lawfully. An owner who refuses one carrying extra terms cannot be held out on that ground alone.

Title Problems Are a Separate Reason to Withhold

Payment may also be suspended for reasons that have nothing to do with signing. A dispute concerning title can support withholding [2]. So can a reasonable doubt about the payee’s title or authority to sell, or an unmet title-opinion requirement after a curative request [2].

A suspended payment is therefore not automatically a late payment. Establishing which of the two is happening is the first useful question when a check does not arrive.

What Other States Do With the Same Question

Texas is not the general rule, which is why this post says Texas throughout. North Dakota forbids withholding royalty because an owner has not executed a division order [3]. Louisiana forbids it too, awarding double royalties, interest and fees where that was the only reason, unless the owner ignored an information request [4]. Pennsylvania’s unconventional-well payment section excuses late payment on three grounds, plus lease terms and small balances; refusal to sign is not one [5].

New Mexico runs the other way. Refusing to execute a reasonable division or transfer order is a listed excuse under New Mexico’s 18 percent late-payment penalty [6]. Oklahoma’s division order section does not address refusal to sign, and its subsequent clock runs to the last day of the second succeeding month [7]. Wyoming’s payment statute does not address refusal to sign, but a payor who cannot pay on time must escrow proceeds in Wyoming [8].

Colorado suspends payment deadlines if a payee fails to confirm its interest in writing, and requires certified notice before a statutory claim [9]. West Virginia’s statutory payment deadline in 37C-1-3 reaches horizontal wells only [10]. A Texas answer therefore travels badly, and the statute to read is the one for the state the well sits in.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or compliance advice. Consult qualified legal counsel or a compliance professional for guidance specific to your operations and jurisdiction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does signing a division order transfer my mineral rights?

No. A division order is not a deed and carries no conveyance among the provisions Texas permits it to contain [2]. Your ownership stays with the deed and your royalty terms with the lease. A clause going beyond the permitted seven is the case worth reading closely.

What if my division order arrives years after the well started producing?

The payment clock runs from the sale rather than from the paperwork. Texas requires first proceeds within 120 days after the end of the month of first sale [2]. A late division order does not restart that period, though a title issue or an unsigned statutory order can justify withholding [2].

Does a division order expire or need re-signing?

It stays in effect until something it describes changes or either party terminates it on 30 days’ written notice [2]. A sale of the interest, a change of payor or a new well in the unit can each produce a new one. Every new document restates the decimal, which is why each is worth checking.

What should I keep after signing?

The deed, the lease and the plat or pooling declaration. Keep the division order itself alongside them. If the decimal is ever questioned, the argument is made from those documents.

Who do I ask if the decimal looks wrong?

The payor who sent it, because they derived the number. Ask which acreage figure, unit size and royalty rate they applied. Check those three inputs first, because the arithmetic itself is a single multiplication.

What is the difference between a division order and a transfer order?

A division order states the decimal the payor intends to pay the current owner. A transfer order records that an interest has moved from one owner to another. The first sets the share, the second changes who receives it.

What do NPRI and ORRI mean on a division order?

An NPRI is a non-participating royalty interest, carved out of the minerals, whose holder cannot lease. An ORRI is an overriding royalty interest, carved out of the working interest and ending with the lease. Each is often still scaled by the tract’s share of the unit, but its rate comes from the deed or assignment, not the lease.

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References

  1. Worked arithmetic from the acreage, royalty and revenue figures stated in this post. No external source.
  2. Texas Natural Resources Code, Section 91.402, Time for Payment of Proceeds, including subsections (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/NR/htm/NR.91.htm
  3. North Dakota Century Code 47-16-39.3, Division orders; definition, function, and operation. https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t47c16.pdf
  4. Louisiana Revised Statutes 31:138.1, Division order; precedence of lease; penalties for failure to pay royalties due. https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=87831
  5. Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Lease Act (Act 60 of 1979), Section 3.3, 58 P.S. 35.3, payment to royalty owners from an unconventional formation, subsection (e). https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/HTM/1979/0/0060..HTM
  6. New Mexico Statutes Annotated 70-10-5, Application; penalty, subsection (D), with 70-10-3, Payment of oil and gas proceeds; time for payment. https://nmonesource.com/nmos/nmsa/en/4440/1/document.do
  7. Oklahoma Statutes Title 52, Section 570.10, Payment of proceeds from sale of oil and gas production, and Section 570.11, Division orders. https://oksenate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/os52.pdf
  8. Wyoming Statutes 30-5-301 through 30-5-305, Title 30, Chapter 5, Article 3, Payment for Interests in Production, commonly called the Wyoming Royalty Payment Act. https://www.wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title30.pdf
  9. Colorado Revised Statutes 34-60-118.5, Payment of proceeds - definitions. https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-34.pdf
  10. West Virginia Code 37C-1-3, Payments from horizontal wells to be made timely; interest penalties. https://code.wvlegislature.gov/37C-1-3/
  11. TetraSoft Atlas, multi-state well and operator dataset. https://www.tetrasoftco.com/atlas-landing.html
  12. Railroad Commission of Texas, Production Data Query System (PDQ) FAQs. https://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/faqs/oil-gas-faq/production-data-query-system-faqs/
  13. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Crude Oil Production, annual thousand barrels by state, 2025. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_crd_crpdn_adc_mbbl_a.htm
  14. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas Marketed Production, annual million cubic feet by state, 2025. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_prod_sum_a_EPG0_VGM_mmcf_a.htm

Interactive tool

Division order decimal checker

Your decimal is your net mineral acres divided by the unit acres, times your royalty rate. Enter the three numbers from your deed, plat and lease, then compare against the decimal the division order states.

Your computed decimal interest

0.01171875

share of unit revenue

  • 40 net mineral acres in a 640 acre unit is 6.2500 percent of the unit.
  • At a 18.7500 percent royalty, that is a decimal of 0.01171875.
Your share of the unit
6.2500%
Difference from the stated decimal
not entered
Worth per $1,000,000 of unit revenue
not entered

Ordinary royalty decimal for one tract pooled into a unit. It does not cover overriding royalties, non-participating royalty interests, working interests net of costs, or title questions. A mismatch is a reason to ask the payor how their number was derived.