My father died last year and he owned a small section of mineral rights S31, T21S-R27E and my research into this hasn’t revealed much detail and the person/company who has the lease doesn’t return calls or emails. I read an article my dad had in the folder with the lease that was about the City of Carlsbad leasing it’s land to Santo Petroleum in 2017 and all residents of Carlsbad with mineral rights were being tracked down in order to secure leases from as many as possible. My dad was part of that group from what I can deduce. However, it only appears that he has continued to get small least extension checks and no dividend checks, which leads me to believe either drilling hasn’t actually started yet, or maybe just not in his section, etc. The article referred to “the Brine Well”, although I don’t know if that’s the name for the whole project by Santo or not. (Santo isn’t the company who has my dad’s lease). So I’m trying to find out if the Brine Well is in production or if anyone can tell me more about what’s going on with the Eddy Co. drilling. Thanks in advance.
Permian Resources had two permit for the Fred 442H and the 402H as of 9/13/22. I has a surface location in section 32 and was supposed to go west into 32 and then into sec 36-21-26E. Don’t see that either have drilled yet, so not sure if those are the ones you are talking about.
Hi Apache- My father also left me mineral rights in the same section. To my understanding Santo sold to Permian Resources, as the new operator. I’m not sure what that means. I have emailed Santo and they have always answered rather quickly. I have signed a lease extension with Santo for an additional 2 years (total of 7). The rigs “Fred 402H and 442H” are permitted and not drilled. I check every few weeks. I would like to share info further with you, if that’s ok. -Jst4Grins
Santo was also known as SPC Resources and they were just recently bought out by Permian Resources.
Santo/SPC underwent a large-scale leasing effort under the City of Carlsbad back around 2018. The terms were pretty rigid including requiring a five-year term to all leases. Last year when these leases were likely coming to an end, SPC sent out notices that lease terms were going to be extended due to Force Majure because the City had put a stop to all drilling within City limits during the remediation of a collapsed brine (salt water) well. Essentially, the moratorium on drilling allowed SPC to extend leases for approx. 1 yr if individual lease wording allowed for it.
Fast forward to March of this year and Permian Resources has taken over all leases and permits from SPC including the Fred wells MBarnes mentioned which are mapped to cross through your section. It is unclear what Permian is planning with all the city leases SPC gathered- to extend/renew or let lapse.
Your best bet is to reach out to Permian and see what they say about your lease and minerals. Here is a link to the Fred wells on the OCD site: OCD Permitting - Well Details (nm.gov). There is contact info for Permian under the Operator information on the right.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for your response. I have already learned a good amount from just the responses so far. You asked if you could share more with me. Of course you are welcome to share more information with me and I will as well, if I learn anything new. Thanks!
Thank you so much for this link and added info. The leases were on SPC Resources letterhead and I didn’t realized that was Santo Petroleum; so now the leases are owned by Permian. I will reach out to them.
A couple additional questions to help me sort my priorities and timing:
-
It seems that I don’t need to hire a Landman to do any research for me, as I thought I had to do before finding this Forum. Now that I know more about the location and background regarding this lease, that doesn’t seem to be a necessary expense or need. Pls LMK if you disagree. The only thing I don’t know for sure is if this Section is in the residential area where my grandparents built a home probably in the 1940’s or so, give or take, or located somewhere else in Eddy Co.
-
Is it a good idea to get ahead of things by hiring an O&G attorney to get the name changed from my dad to me and/or me and my brother (only other heir). If so, can anyone recommend a good but reasonably priced attorney for this purpose? Not sure if giving recommendations is against the rules, but if not, I’d appreciate a few names.
Thank you so much for all your help!
Thought I would give you an update Jst4grins and anyone else interested. I did finally get in touch with Trey, the Landman with Schoeffler Energy Group, associated with SPC Resources, and he helped me get the name change Affidavit from my deceased father to me and my brother. Waiting for final stages of that process, but what he told me about the drilling of the Fred Unit in Eddy Co. was that it was looking like it might happen at end of this year or early next year.
Thank you for the update!
This topic was automatically closed after 90 days. New replies are no longer allowed.