PRELIMINARY PROXY STATEMENT – SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED APRIL 4, 2019

Proxy card image 1, 2

All SEC filings

Push for governance:

Reasons for the Solicitation

At the Special Meeting, one trustee of the Trust is to be elected to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Mr. Maurice Meyer III. We are seeking your proxy to vote for the election of Mr. Oliver as a trustee.

• Well-Qualified Nominee: Mr. Oliver is an experienced oil and gas investor with over 22 years of experience buying and selling properties and over 35 years of experience managing investments with an emphasis in the energy market. Among other relevant experience:
• Mr. Oliver currently serves as the President of SoftVest Advisors, a registered investment adviser that acts as an investment manager for clients, including funds and managed accounts, with investments in oil and gas minerals and royalties;
• Mr. Oliver was President of Midland Map Company, LLC, a Permian Basin oil and gas lease and ownership map producer since 1997, and recently sold in January 2019 to Drilling Info;
• Mr. Oliver is Principal of Geologic Research Centers LLC, a log library providing geological data to the oil and gas industry with a library in Abilene, Texas;
• Mr. Oliver has served on the Board of Directors of Texas Mutual Insurance Company since 2009, where he currently also serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee, with over $6,500,000,000 of total assets;
• Mr. Oliver has served as a director on the Board of Directors of AMEN Properties, Inc. since July 2001 and was appointed Chairman of the Board in September 2002, AMEN Properties owns, directly or indirectly, certain oil and gas royalty and working interest properties; and
• In 2007, through certain affiliated entities, Mr. Oliver led a team to successfully acquire the assets of the Santa Fe Energy Trust (formerly NYSE ticker SFF), which consisted of over 12,000 royalty and working interest properties in at least seven states.

For additional information about Mr. Oliver see below under the heading “MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED AT THE SPECIAL MEETING—Biographical Information Regarding Mr. Oliver.”

• Commitment to Fully Explore Conversion of the Trust into a Delaware Corporation: Mr. Oliver and the other Participants believe that the Trust would benefit from converting into a Delaware corporation, and subject to his duties as trustee, Mr. Oliver is committed to fully exploring this alternative.

Among other things, the Participants believe that, as compared to trust law, Delaware corporate law has a more well-developed legal framework around matters of governance and investor rights, which in our view provides greater comfort and predictability to investors in a publicly-traded entity. In that regard, we note by way of example:

• Election of Trustees and Shareholder Meetings: Trustees of the Trust serve until their death, resignation or diqualification, which in our view makes the election of a trustee comparable to a life-tenured appointment. Meetings of holder of Shares only occur when a new trustee needs to be elected to fill a vacancy of one of the three trustee positions. Indeed, public filings show that the Trust has only held three meetings of holders of Shares since the year 2000.
• In contrast, Delaware law generally requires that corporations hold an anual meeting to vote on the election of directors. Directors, in turn, can be elected for terms of one year (if the board is not staggered) or three years (if the board is staggered).
• Mr. Oliver is Committed to Fully Exploring the Best Options for the Trust’s New Water Business: In June 2017, the Trust announced the formation of Texas Pacific Water Resources LLC (“TPWR”). TPWR, a single member LLC and wholly owned subsidiary of the Trust, focuses on providing a full-service water offering to operators in the Permian Basin. These services include, but are not limited to, brackish water sourcing, produced-water gathering/treatment/recycling, infrastructure development/construction, disposal, water tracking, analytics and well testing services. The Participants believe that these activities could create various risks for the Trust, such as risks related to workers compensation, leaks or rupturing of pipelines (including surface damage) and injection well casings (including potential acquifier contamination). In light of those risks, Mr. Oliver is committed to actively encouraging the Trust to evaluate the existing water business and, with the assistance of outside consultants and other advisors, determine if it is advisable to grow operations internally, partner with a strategic partner, or sell the water rights to a third party and retain a royalty. Mr. Oliver is not pre-judging any such approach, and believes each such option needs to be fully evaluated with proper outside consultants, in order to maximize value for holders of Shares. In addition, Mr. Oliver believes that any proposed capital expenditures and operating expenses incurred in connection with TPWR should have their respective expected rates of return carefully compared to the compounding benefits of retiring outstanding Shares.

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