Mineral rights in Panola County, Texas: what the public records show
Three public sources describe minerals in Panola County: the Railroad Commission's well map, the county clerk's index and the appraisal district. This page counts what the first two show, says what each count means, and says what none of them can prove.
This page is education, not legal advice. It reports what public records show and doesn't say who owns any minerals in Panola County. Naming a county here is not a statement about where Our Landmen LLC buys.
The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) well map, queried September 29, 2026, shows 10,699 map points with Panola County's API county code, 6,047 of them drawn as gas wells and 312 as oil wells. Our copy of the Panola County Clerk's index, current to July 30, 2026, holds between 619 and 914 entries a year labeled MINERAL DEED from 2020 through 2025, and between 373 and 517 a year labeled AFFIDAVIT OF HEIRSHIP. None of those numbers says who owns a mineral interest, what a lease pays or whether a well is producing. Ownership and lease terms are in the instruments themselves, read in order, and reading them is a job for a title examiner or an attorney. Production is in the RRC's lease production reports.
Three public offices keep records that touch minerals in Panola County. The county clerk indexes the instruments people file. The RRC maps well locations. The appraisal district keeps tax accounts, including accounts for minerals.
Every number below says where it came from, what was counted and the date it is current to. Two of the three sources are counted here, the RRC map and the clerk's index. For the appraisal district, the page reports only what the district's own pages list. One paragraph in section 4 uses commercial third-party data, and says so.
1Where Panola County sits
The RRC's county list puts Panola County in Oil and Gas District 06 and labels 365 as the county's FIPS code (RRC, Oil & Gas Counties and Associated Districts). In the RRC well layer used in section 2, the API numbers of wells in Panola County begin with 365.
The Handbook of Texas says the Legislature established the county on March 30, 1846, from parts of Shelby and Harrison counties, and that Carthage is the county seat (Texas State Historical Association, Panola County). The county website lists the County Clerk's office at 110 S. Sycamore, Room 201, Carthage, TX 75633, and its phone as 903-693-0302 (Panola County, County Clerk).
The RRC's glossary says the original patent surveys, recorded in the State Abstract of Land Titles that the General Land Office keeps, are the state's official land survey system, and that each survey's abstract number is unique within the county the survey falls in (RRC Public GIS Viewer Glossary). The glossary gives that uniqueness only within a county, so an abstract number is best read together with the county name. The RRC's map service has a Surveys layer whose fields include an abstract number and a survey name.
2Wells the RRC map shows in Panola County
This counts map points in the RRC's Public GIS well layer, as of our query on September 29, 2026. It counts points whose API number begins with 365. It is not a count of the wells in the county.
| Symbol, as the layer names it | What the RRC glossary says | Map points |
|---|---|---|
| Gas Well | Classed by production. The glossary's tests include a well that produces natural gas not associated or blended with crude oil, and a well that produces more than 100,000 cubic feet of gas to each barrel of crude oil from the same producing horizon. | 6,047 |
| Oil Well | Any well that produces one barrel or more of crude oil to each 100,000 cubic feet of natural gas. | 312 |
| Oil/Gas Well | A completed well with a history of both oil and gas production, based on reported test data. | 292 |
| Plugged Gas Well | A well with a history of gas production that has been plugged. | 1,427 |
| Plugged Oil Well | A well with a history of oil production that has been plugged. | 564 |
| Plugged Oil / Gas | The glossary's Plugged Oil/Gas Well: a well with a history of oil and gas production that has been plugged. | 198 |
| Dry Hole | A plugged well that never produced oil or gas. | 555 |
| Permitted Location | The proposed location of a well for which the RRC has granted a drilling permit. | 977 |
| Canceled / Abandoned Location | The glossary's Canceled Location: a well location for which the permit has expired or been canceled. | 163 |
| All other symbols | Injection and disposal, shut-in, water supply and storage symbols. The counts are listed below the table, with the smallest grouped. | 164 |
| All map points | Every symbol in the table | 10,699 |
The other 164. Injection / Disposal, 58; Injection / Disposal from Gas, 41; Injection / Disposal from Oil, 6; Shut-In Gas, 47; Shut-In Oil, 5; and Injection / Disposal from Oil/Gas, Water Supply Well and Storage Well together, 7.
What the symbols are. The names in the first column come from the layer's own description field. The map legend prints shorter names, such as Gas, Oil and Plugged Gas, and the glossary uses names such as Gas Well and Plugged Gas Well (RRC Public GIS Viewer Legend). A symbol is the RRC's class for a location. Besides internal identifiers, the layer's fields are the API number, a five-digit field that usually repeats its last five digits, the well number, the symbol, the location source, a field named RELIAB and coordinates. It has no production volumes, no operator names and no status dates.
Plugged points. Three symbols say Plugged, and together they count 2,189 points (1,427 + 564 + 198). Dry Hole is a separate symbol with 555 points of its own, and they are not inside the 2,189. The glossary describes a dry hole as a plugged well that never produced oil or gas.
Map points, not wells. Of the 10,699 points, 9,580 carry an eight-digit API number in the layer, the county code 365 followed by five digits. The other 1,119 carry only the county code, 365, and have no five-digit ending (the field is blank or empty).
How current it is. The RRC's viewer page says the Public GIS Viewer is updated nightly. It doesn't say how often the layer we queried is refreshed, so the date above is the date we asked. The same page says the data sets are for information only, generally do not represent an on-the-ground survey and have no legal force or effect (RRC, Public GIS Viewer).
3Mineral deeds, heirship affidavits and unit filings recorded here
These are entries in our copy of the Panola County Clerk's index, counted by the clerk's own document-type label and by the date the instrument was recorded. Our copy runs to July 30, 2026, so 2026 is a partial year.
| Year recorded | MINERAL DEED | AFFIDAVIT OF HEIRSHIP | UNIT DESIGNATION/ | All entries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 726 | 376 | 65 | 8,403 |
| 2021 | 688 | 381 | 78 | 8,319 |
| 2022 | 874 | 446 | 45 | 8,534 |
| 2023 | 914 | 517 | 20 | 7,877 |
| 2024 | 619 | 405 | 7 | 6,068 |
| 2025 | 707 | 373 | 12 | 6,287 |
| 2026, to July 30 | 352 | 229 | 5 | 3,720 |
Source: our copy of the Panola County Clerk's index, held in our Panola county lakehouse, recorded dates through July 30, 2026. The unit column adds the entries labeled UNIT DESIGNATION/DECLARATION to those labeled POOLING AGREEMENT. Each other label column counts entries with exactly that label. No count under 5 is printed on this page.
What was counted. One row in our copy is one index entry. "All entries" counts every label except UNUSED FILE NUMBER, which appears 18 times from 2020 through 2026. The index also holds 300 rows labeled CONVERSION ONLY PLACEHOLDER. All of them were recorded between 1911 and 1937, so none fall in these years.
The label is the clerk's. The index uses 102 different labels. MINERAL DEED is the only one with "mineral" in it, and there is no label for a royalty deed. A deed filed under a general label such as DEED or WARRANTY DEED isn't counted as a MINERAL DEED, and the label can't tell you what interest a MINERAL DEED conveys. Only the instrument shows that.
Heirship. The AFFIDAVIT OF HEIRSHIP column doesn't count affidavits filed under the general label AFFIDAVIT. What the law says about a recorded affidavit of heirship is in the ownership guide.
Units. The RRC's rule on well densities defines a drilling unit as the acreage assigned to a well for drilling purposes, and a proration unit as the acreage assigned to a well for assigning allowables and allocating allowable production (16 Tex. Admin. Code § 3.38(a)(2) and (3)). Those are the RRC's terms. UNIT DESIGNATION/DECLARATION and POOLING AGREEMENT are the clerk's labels, and the index doesn't say which RRC unit, if any, a filing goes with. The 2026 unit figure, 5, is the partial year to July 30.
Year to year. MINERAL DEED entries run from 619 in 2024 to 914 in 2023, and affidavits of heirship from 373 in 2025 to 517 in 2023. The unit column falls from 78 in 2021 to 7 in 2024. The index gives no reason for any change.
Completeness. In our copy, the clerk's file numbers run in sequence. For each year from 2020 through 2026, our copy has entries for 98.0 to 98.9 percent of the numbers between that year's lowest and highest file number, counting the same entries as the table, which leaves out rows labeled UNUSED FILE NUMBER. In 2025, for example, it has entries for 6,287 of the 6,394 numbers. The rest may be numbers the clerk didn't use, including some our copy labels UNUSED FILE NUMBER, or entries our copy lacks, and we can't tell which. The counts here can run a little low. They come from our copy and can differ from a live search on the clerk's site.
4Why a count of recorded leases can mislead
Panola's list of labels has one named LEASE, one named EXT/REN/MOD LEASE, one named MEMO TERMINATING LEASE and one named MEMORANDUM. None of the 102 labels says oil and gas. LEASE doesn't say what kind of lease it is, and MEMORANDUM doesn't say what the instrument is a memorandum of.
In our copy, entries labeled LEASE are far fewer in 2023, 2024 and 2025 than in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and entries labeled MEMORANDUM are far more numerous in 2022 through 2025 than in 2020 and 2021. We don't print those counts. Neither label says what kind of lease is involved, so a count of either would not be a count of oil and gas leases.
A second source explains part of the shift. Our lakehouse holds Enverus's lease data for Panola County (its LandTrac leases and its legal leases), which is commercial third-party data and not a public record. The files we hold were written August 4, 2026, and their 33,352 lease records carry a record date, from January 5, 2000 through April 27, 2026. We matched each record to the entry in our copy of the clerk's index with the same instrument number and the same recorded date. Instrument numbers in the older part of the index repeat from year to year, so a match on the number alone can land on the wrong entry, and we kept only matches on both. Of the 33,352 records, 29,402 matched an entry that way and 3,950 did not, mostly records dated 2000 to 2010. In those files (written August 4, 2026, record dates through April 27, 2026), 4,631 matched entries were recorded from 2020 through 2025, and Enverus types 4,272 of them, or 92 percent, as a memorandum of lease. Of the 703 matched entries recorded in 2021 that Enverus types as memoranda (same files, same dates), the clerk labeled nearly all LEASE. Of the 808 recorded in 2023 (same files, same dates), the clerk labeled nearly all MEMORANDUM. So, if Enverus's typing is right, the clerk's label for that kind of instrument changed, and much of the fall in entries labeled LEASE from 2021 to 2023 is that change. In each year from 2020 through 2025, Enverus's records match only some of the entries labeled LEASE or MEMORANDUM, so these are shares of the entries it matches and not of all filings, and we haven't checked its typing against the instruments.
The RRC says lease and royalty matters are outside its authority, and that information about an existing lease may be found in the courthouse of the county where the land is (RRC royalties FAQ). A recorded lease is open to the public. Property Code § 11.008 counts a mineral lease among the instruments it covers, and says those instruments are subject to inspection by the public (§ 11.008(a) and (g)).
Whether a tract is leased, and who holds the lease now, takes reading the instruments recorded against the tract, in order. The ownership guide explains how the clerk's indexes are kept.
5The clerk's index and our copy of it
The County Clerk's page on the Panola County website lists "Tyler Eagle - Self Service (Land Records)" under Public Records, and links it to panolacountytx-web.tylerhost.net/web (Panola County, County Clerk). To be effectively recorded, an instrument relating to real property must be recorded in the county in which part of the property is located, with an exception for certain utility security instruments (Property Code § 11.001(a)). A tract on a county line can have instruments in the records of each county it touches.
The search site opens on a disclaimer page that a visitor has to accept before searching. The disclaimer calls the index a guide to the documents, similar to a library card catalogue, and says it should not be relied upon in making any decision about the underlying document. It says the online database does not constitute the official repository of real property records and may not reflect the complete or unaltered contents of the official records. It also says information has been redacted from certain instruments in the database.
Our copy of the index was built from that site's search results. Each entry has a document-type label, a recorded date, grantor and grantee names, and a volume and page or a file number. As of July 30, 2026 it holds 615,815 rows. Of those, 300 are labeled CONVERSION ONLY PLACEHOLDER, fewer than 5 are labeled "Historical Index" and have no date, and 752 carry the recorded date 01/01/1900, which our lakehouse treats as no date. The earliest recorded date in it is January 2, 1860, and the latest is July 30, 2026. The county was established in 1846, and no entry in our copy carries a recorded date before 1860.
The numbers on an entry change form over time. From 2002 through 2021, nearly every entry in our copy shows a volume and page, though 45 show a 0 in one or both. In 2022, 1,846 of the 8,534 entries show a volume and page other than 0, the last of them recorded in June, and from 2023 none do. From 2006 through 2024, file numbers were mostly a six-digit running count that did not restart each year. From 2025 the numbers restart each year and carry the year, followed by a hyphen and a six-digit number. An older citation by volume and page and a newer one by file number look different in the index.
We did not run a search on the clerk's site for this page, so none of the counts here has been compared with a live search there. They can differ from what the site shows, for the reasons in the completeness note in section 3.
The clerk's page also lists an email address for Public Information Act requests for records in the County Clerk's office, countyclerk@co.panola.tx.us, and links a recording fee schedule. What an owner can look up in the clerk's online index is what its entries hold, and the ownership guide explains why a name search can miss an entry.
6The appraisal district and its mineral roll
The Panola County Appraisal District's Data and Records page lists a mineral appraisal roll file for each tax year from 2020 through 2026. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 files are titled "Certified Mineral Appraisal Roll (Zip)", and the 2020 through 2023 files "Certified Mineral Roll (Zip)" (Panola CAD, Data and Records). We haven't opened those files, so this page doesn't say what they hold or how many accounts they list.
The district's Property Search page has a Property Type choice with the options MINERAL, PERSONAL and REAL, and a Tax Year choice that lists 2017 through 2026 (Panola CAD, Property Search).
The Tax Code says each separate interest in minerals in place is listed separately from other interests, in the name of the owner of the interest (§ 25.12(a)). It also lets the operator designated with the RRC ask, before May 1, for separate interests to be listed jointly, in the operator's name or in the names of the owners, with an exception for interests of very low taxable value (§ 25.12(b)). So an account can sit in an operator's name when the operator has asked for joint listing.
The ownership guide covers what an appraisal record has to contain and why a name on a roll is a lead to check against the deed records. This page gives no account counts and no values.
7What these records don't tell you
- Who owns the minerals. Nothing counted here names an owner, and this page names none.
- What an interest is worth. This page gives no values.
- What any lease says. Index labels don't show terms, and the RRC says lease and royalty matters are outside its authority (RRC royalties FAQ).
- Whether a well is producing. The map symbols classify locations, and the layer carries no production.
- That a count is complete. The clerk counts come from our copy and may run a little low, as section 3 explains. The map counts are points, not wells.
Reading the whole chain of title, and saying what an interest is, is the work of a title examiner or an attorney.
Sources
Records checked . Each page below was opened that day. The Texas statutes site said its statutes were current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025. Laws, agency pages and county pages change, so check the current text before relying on any of it.
- RRC Public GIS map service, Well Locations and Surveys layersLayer 1, Well Locations: count of map points where the API begins 365, grouped by symbol description (GIS_SYMBOL_DESCRIPTION). Layer 24, Surveys: field list only (abstract number and survey name).https://gis.rrc.texas.gov/server/rest/services/rrc_public/RRC_Public_Viewer_Srvs/MapServer/1?f=pjsonThe count query, as run. It runs live, so counts from a later day can differ. The counts come back in a field named N.https://gis.rrc.texas.gov/server/rest/services/rrc_public/RRC_Public_Viewer_Srvs/MapServer/24?f=pjsonQueried September 29, 2026
- Railroad Commission of Texas, Public GIS Viewer Glossary and LegendDefinitions of well symbols, abstract numbers and surveys; legend nameshttps://gis.rrc.texas.gov/gisviewer/GISViewer/docs/publicVeiwerGlossary.pdfhttps://gis.rrc.texas.gov/gisviewer/GISViewer/docs/Public_GIS_Viewer_Legend.pdfOpened September 29, 2026
- Railroad Commission of Texas, Public GIS ViewerNightly update statement and the data disclaimerhttps://www.rrc.texas.gov/resource-center/research/gis-viewer/Opened September 29, 2026
- Railroad Commission of Texas, Oil & Gas Counties and Associated DistrictsPanola County: District 06, FIPS code 365https://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/locations/oil-gas-counties-districts/Opened September 29, 2026
- Railroad Commission of Texas, Royalties FAQLimits of RRC authority; courthouse records for an existing leasehttps://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/faqs/royalties-faq/Opened September 29, 2026
- 16 Texas Administrative Code § 3.38, Well Densities§ 3.38(a)(2) and (3): drilling unit and proration unit. Read on Cornell Legal Information Institute and checked against the RRC's own compilation of 16 Tex. Admin. Code chapter 3 (titled effective July 1, 2025, file dated June 2, 2026). Both show the same definitions and the latest amendment effective March 18, 2019.https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/texas/16-Tex-Admin-Code-SS-3-38https://www.rrc.texas.gov/media/jfqhzm1y/chapter3-all-effective-july1-2025.pdfOpened September 29, 2026
- Our copy of the Panola County Clerk's indexHeld in our Panola county lakehouse (index table, 615,815 rows, recorded dates January 2, 1860 through July 30, 2026, built August 8, 2026). The harvested file it was built from, last written July 30, 2026, gives the same counts. Built from the search site listed on the clerk's page. Not published; the clerk's office holds the official records.Counted September 29, 2026
- Enverus, LandTrac leases and legal leases, as fused in our Panola county lakehouse33,352 lease records (the two products overlap) with record dates from January 5, 2000 through April 27, 2026. 29,402 of the 33,352 matched the clerk's index entry with the same instrument number and the same recorded date (the 3,950 that did not are mostly recorded 2000 to 2010, and none matched more than one entry); the 29,402 point to 11,997 distinct index entries. The files we hold were written August 4, 2026. Commercial third-party data, not a public record. Used only for the memorandum typing in section 4.Counted September 29, 2026
- Panola County, Texas, County Clerk pageClerk's address and phone; the link labeled "Tyler Eagle - Self Service (Land Records)"; the Public Information Act email address; the fee schedule link. We opened the county's page, and the opening disclaimer page of the search site it links to. We did not accept the disclaimer or run a search.https://www.co.panola.tx.us/1195/County-Clerkhttps://panolacountytx-web.tylerhost.net/webOpened September 29, 2026
- Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, Panola CountyDate the county was established; county seathttps://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/panola-countyOpened September 29, 2026
- Panola County Appraisal District, Data and Records, and Property SearchMineral roll files listed for 2020 through 2026; Property Type and Tax Year choices on the search page. The files were not opened.https://panolacad.org/home/DataRecordshttps://panolacad.org/Opened September 29, 2026
- Texas Tax Code, chapter 25§ 25.12: mineral interest, separate and joint listinghttps://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TX/htm/TX.25.htmOpened September 29, 2026
- Texas Property Code, chapter 11§ 11.001(a): place of recording; § 11.008(a) and (g): mineral lease among instruments open to inspectionhttps://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.11.htmOpened September 29, 2026
If you want to go further
If you own a mineral or royalty interest, in Panola County or anywhere else, and would like us to look at it, the request form on the home page asks for your name and email, the county and state, what you own and whether it is producing. It also has optional boxes for a phone number, the operator on the check, net mineral acres or a decimal, and the legal description or what the deed or check stub says. Sending it commits you to nothing, and we don't make an offer on every request.