Maria Duval Testimony #38

This is a long testimony :)

Dear Maria Duval:

I have some tremendous news for you.

Several years ago I inherited 73 parcels of mineral and oil & gas royalty interests located in three south Texas counties near Houston. The oil wells on some of these properties had produced a lot of income but by the time I got them, they had all been pretty well depleted. My income from them was very small, and it got down to practically nothing before the growing shortage of oil caused a renewed interest in looking for new sources of crude oil. I started to have buyers for leases on some of my properties which had never been drilled. This produced more dry holes. But finally last fall I started to get a little income from a new well that had just been drilled. Then came another completion which was much better than the first one.

My royalty checks usually come in the mail right around the first of the month. So a week ago yesterday, which was October 1st, the royalty check from this second well came in the mail. I learned then that they had identified this well as SWitzer Trust No. 1 Well and it was completed last March. Since that time they had doen some testing of the well, as it the normal way they do with a new well. They also completed their record keeping process which resulted in my getting royalty check October 1.
All this sounds pretty normal so far, doesn’t it. But when I opened the envelope and looked at the check, I nearly came apart; the check was for $266,877.10. This was for my share of the production for the five month it had been producing. I don’t know what the average monthly income will turn out to be, but it should be pretty big. And the life of a normal oil well sometimes reaches from 20 to 30 years. Imagine that.

I live alone in the house that my wife, June, and I bought 20 years ago. I had 4 brothers and 4 sisters all of whom are gone, as are their spouses. I have a bunch of nephews and nieces and June has some too. Of all these relatives, only one of June’s nephews live in Dallas. The rest are scattered all over the the United States.

I have been walking around for the past week in sort of a daze. I have not breathed a word about my good fortune to anyone except the CPA that does my tax returns. I want to wait until I’ve settle down a little until I start letting my family know about this. I’m beginning to realize that I’m living in a new environment since a week ago yesterday. And you know what, I’ve got a feeling that there’s more good luck to come for me.

An by the way, you will remember that you did me a favour a year or two ago when you knew that I couldn’t pay you, so you settled it by asking me to send you $300.00 from the first money that came to me as a result of your favour to me. This is payday. You will find the check enclosed.

Again, Thank you.


Best Regards,
Russell L.S.
Dallas, TX
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