Changes and corrections

Method change

Deceased or unlocated owner record for each jurisdiction. Each state page and the dormant mineral rule finder now set out, question by question, how the state treats an owner of record who has died, whose identity is unknown, or who cannot be found: the nonuse rule itself, heirs and successors, the search required, who gets notice and how, notice by publication, how the owner responds or preserves the interest, and any court, receivership or trust procedure. Each point links the statute or court decision it rests on, with the passage and the date it was read. 2 jurisdictions are checked on every question, 49 partly, and 0 are not yet verified; a question that was not checked is labeled as such and never filled in from another state.

Method change

Dormant mineral rule finder 2.1.0. After a jurisdiction is chosen, the finder shows its deceased or unlocated owner record and the title review facts to collect. It asks for no names or personal details, does not decide who owns an interest or whether a notice was valid, and calculates no new date. Its date arithmetic is unchanged from 2.0.0.

Method change

Five columns added to the law dataset. The CSV, JSON and workbook gain the owner record coverage, the reason a record is only partly checked, the questions still open, and the statute and court decision citations behind it. The release 2026.10 files are kept unchanged in the archive.

Method change

Dormancy Risk score and ranks retired. The June edition scored each jurisdiction 0 to 100 (no dormant act 0; special mechanism 45; otherwise 100 minus 1.6 per year over 10, held between 60 and 100) and broke ties alphabetically. The score ignored who must act and what preserves an interest. Release 2026.10 compares the rules themselves. The June scores remain in the archived edition.

AMR correction

"51 jurisdictions, each sourced to its state statute" removed. The June data had 31 of 51 rows with no source address, including six marked "Sourced". Each field now carries its own evidence label, and the trust strip that made the claim is gone.

AMR correction

June and July review dates reconciled. The June export said reviewed June 16, 2026 and the page said July 2026. A July note claimed statute checks for six states, but none of them changed the dataset, so the July date is not used. The June edition keeps its own date; release 2026.10 fields carry the date they were reviewed.

AMR correction

Royalty calculator 2.0.0. Version 1 showed dollar results even after rejecting a 300 percent royalty, accepted malformed numbers, silently treated deductions above gross as zero, and showed an annual range built from a hidden 15 percent price swing and 0.60 to 0.80 annual factors while the page described plain repeated months. Version 2 blocks every result on invalid input, shows exact arithmetic to the cent, and keeps optional scenarios separate and visible.

AMR correction

Dormant mineral rule finder 2.0.0. Version 1 used its own table of 51 rules and showed "window closed" from a last use date plus years, even in states where nothing happens without a surface owner's notice. Version 2 reads the reviewed atlas, asks for a notice date in Ohio and North Dakota, separates Louisiana interest types, and gives no date where none can be computed.

Upstream revision

Production figures updated to EIA final 2025 data. The production pages used preliminary 2025 figures read in June 2026. EIA released its annual tables on September 30, 2026, and several states changed, for example California crude from 93,858 to 105,172 thousand barrels. Values now carry series identifiers and the release date.

Upstream revision

Federal revenue updated to fiscal year 2025. The federal page showed fiscal year 2024 only. It now covers fiscal years 2024 and 2025 from the ONRR disbursements file, by state and source.

AMR correction

Market page no longer labeled live or auto-updated. The page said "auto-updated" while showing a November 2025 forecast and October 2025 rig counts; the automatic refresh had not run since June 2026. It is now a dated snapshot of published EIA prices.

Method change

DOI limited to the June dataset. The DOI badge appeared on every page, including tools and datasets it never covered. It now appears only where the June edition is cited.

AMR correction

Operator name. Pages named the operator "American Mineral Registry LLC". No such entity has been formed, so the suffix was removed.

AMR correction

Commercial claims. Commercial pages claimed vetted buyers, offers within a working day, a buyer panel, and that AMR is never the buyer. None was supported by operating records, so they were removed or replaced, and how AMR is paid is now disclosed.

Method change

Page addresses now name their subject. Research pages moved to addresses that say what they cover, for example /research/states/ohio-dormant-mineral-act instead of /research/states/ohio and /research/oil-and-gas-royalty-calculator instead of /research/royalty-calculator. Every former address redirects permanently, so existing links and citations still resolve.

AMR correction

Rule summaries no longer stop at a legal abbreviation. The short rule summaries for Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia ended at an abbreviation such as “Tenn.” or “Ala.”, because the text was split into sentences at every period. The full sentences now appear on the state pages, in the atlas exports and in the rule finder.

AMR correction

Embeds now load on other sites. Every page was served with a header that blocked framing by other sites, so the published embed codes could not work elsewhere. Embed pages now allow framing.

Legal change

Iowa abandoned mineral interests, effective June 2, 2026. 2026 Iowa Acts chapter 1176 (H.F. 2531) extended Iowa Code chapter 557C from coal to oil, gas and most other minerals: an interest inactive for twenty years is abandoned and title vests in the surface owner unless a statement of claim is filed. The Act sets no new claim deadline for newly covered minerals, so how earlier years count is unsettled. See the Iowa page.

Legal change

Iowa pooling and surface damages, effective July 1, 2026. 2026 Iowa Acts chapter 1141 (S.F. 2490) limited compulsory pooling under Iowa Code 458A.8 to natural hydrogen, on application by owners of at least 25 percent of a unit, and added a surface entry consent and damages rule (458A.26). See the Iowa page.

Legal change

West Virginia coal ownership routes, in effect June 12, 2026. 2026 Senate Bill 686 added West Virginia Code chapters 37B-3 and 37B-4 on coal interests of unknown or missing owners, alongside the existing court procedures. See the West Virginia page.

Legal change

Georgia code revision, effective July 1, 2026. House Bill 1268 (Act 723) changed a cross reference in subsection (f) of O.C.G.A. 44-5-168. It did not change the seven year petition rule.

AMR correction

State tax on royalty income. Every income tax row and the severance tax of 25 producing states were checked against statute or revenue agency text. The June pages had wrong or incomplete figures for Montana (royalty interests pay 15.10 percent), Wyoming (no 2 percent new well rate), Kansas (a 3.67 percent credit), North Dakota (gas is taxed per Mcf), Illinois (no general production levy), Virginia (local gas taxes only), California (the assessment is per barrel or per 10 Mcf), New Mexico (conservation tax 0.24 percent on oil since April 2026), Oklahoma (an excise tax was omitted) and Colorado (the property tax credit). Sell pages also said that a state without an income tax leaves royalties taxed only federally, which is wrong for an owner whose home state has an income tax.

AMR correction

Federal royalty rates. The offshore rate was given as 18.75 percent. Since July 4, 2025 new offshore leases carry 12.5 to 16 2/3 percent under 43 U.S.C. 1337, and 18.75 percent applies only to some older leases. The onshore history now shows the 12.5 percent floor, the 16 2/3 percent rate kept by leases issued from August 16, 2022 to July 4, 2025, and the BLM rule in force from June 29, 2026.

AMR correction

Response times and superlatives. Four commercial pages still promised offers within about one working day, and several called competing offers the most reliable way to value an interest. There is no operating data behind either, so both were removed, along with a count of 30 states where minerals cannot lapse that contradicted this review.