Yes, I have mineral rights for gas in the Barnett Shale and went through the same thing. The checks are getting a little bigger again and one that wasn’t paying is paying occasionally again.
A client lof mine never made much money. . About 25 some years ago he rec a small inheritence. Went out and bought 170 acres for $68k-worthless hillside ground. He brought it for hunting. His wife almost divorced him.
A few years later the coal company who owned the coal rights wanted to strip it. They paid him $240,000. They found huge gravel deposits and he made another $300k
Back in 2013 he signed with XTO for $5500.00 per acre up front money and 20% royalty.
They also put a well on the property and pay him $75k per year to lease and he gets something like .o1% of everything pumped out plus the 20% of his property. I do not know what he was making but at the high point we were making around $750-800 per acre per month from royalties on our small farm...so figure what he was making on a 600 acre grid.
He now lives in Florida in a gated mansion community.
Talk about pure luck and good karma.