EXHIBIT 31

CERTIFICATIONS

I, Ron Hooper, certify
that:

1. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 10-K of Sabine Royalty Trust, for
which Southwest Bank acts as Trustee;

2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact
or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all
material respects the financial condition, distributable income and changes in trust corpus of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4. I am responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e)
and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)), or for
causing such controls and procedures to be established and maintained, for the registrant and I have:

a) designed
such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under my supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to
me by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being prepared;

b) designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal control over financial reporting to be
designed under my supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes;

c) evaluated the effectiveness of the registrants disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this report my
conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and

d) disclosed in this report any changes in the registrants internal control over financial reporting that occurred
during the registrants most recent fiscal quarter (the registrants fourth fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrants internal control
over financial reporting; and

5. I have disclosed, based on my most recent evaluation of internal control over financial
reporting, to the registrants auditors:

a) all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design
or operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrants ability to record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

b) any fraud, whether or not material, that involves persons who have a significant role in the registrants internal
control over financial reporting.

Date: March 10, 2017



| |  |  |  |     |  |                              
| |  |  |  | --- |  | -----------------------------
| |  |  | 
| |  |  |  | By: |  | /s/    Ron E. Hooper         
| |  |  |  |     |  | Ron E. Hooper                
| |  |  |  |     |  | SVP, Royalty Trust Management
| |  |  |  |     |  | Southwest Bank