Just wondering if any other forum members have mineral rights with XTO in the James Ranch Unit? If so, have you received some division orders recently? I’ve received several including: DI 02 191H, 195H and another I can’t find my copy of right this second. I didn’t see a noticeable bump in my check this month (aside from that associated with bbl price increase) and I’m wondering whether anyone knows more about these wells? Are they new? In the past all my DOs have said something like, “we completed a new well” but these DOs don’t mention a completion. Just curious what the story is.
Those are not new wells. They (191H and 195H) are both Wolfcamp wells, perhaps they are forming a WC participating area and your acreage is now lumped into it, thus you now own part of those wells.
Could you explain that to me a little more? I don’t know what a “WC participating area” is. This ORRI has been in my family since the late 50’s. I think it was a gift to my grandparents from the Bass family, who they were very close with. When the first started drilling there, BOPCO tracked me down as the heir - I didn’t know anything about it. Lol. Still don’t know anything about it other than I get a check every month. Trying to learn and understand more about how it all works. If I have this interest on a certain piece of property, how could I gain interest in a well(s) that already exist? I mean, if it’s on that particular piece of ground, shouldn’t I have been getting an interest since it started producing? I’m not following. Sure would appreciate it if you could explain how this works.
To date, all the wells I get paid on came with division orders upon completion of the well. So these orders are confusing me. I checked my recent check and the 3 DO’s I signed and returned prior to that check haven’t reflected and production on that check. #confused
It’s good to be buddies with the Bass family.
I’m sure my explanation won’t be 10000% correct in the legal sense. And I am trying to move my kid into college so this is gonna be quick (at least in the editing/checking sense, its still a rambling mess).
For most wells, the interest in the well is determined by the ownership in the 160 or 320 or 640 etc acres dedicated to that well. A participating area is an area in a Federal operating unit where all of the interests are pooled for a particular producing zone across a much bigger area. For XTO this applies to JRU, PLU, and BEU. Huge units from Bopco. Bopco didn’t drill many wells and was lazy on filing commercial determinations, which is how you get acreage added to PAs. But now XTO is drilling more wells. As wells get drilled and the acreage is proved economic, bigger and bigger chunks of JRU will be added to the participating area for that given horizon, it will cover more and more area and the interest in all of the wells in that zone are the same. This can dilute your interest but make it cover more wells.
So if hypothetically you own 5% in a single Bonespring well dedicated to 640 acres and nothing else, and XTO grows their BS Participating area to include your well and 9 other 640 acre dedications, well then you would now own .5% in your well as well as .5% in all of the other wells.
Or if they drilled a Wolfcamp well at point A and another at point B and decided that they wanted to convince the BLM the PA should be everything between those two points, well then you could end up owning part of those 2 Wolfcamp wells despite having your acreage in a place that didn’t have any Wolfcamp wells prior. That was my hypothesis. Of course that would mean that if they do drill a Wolfcamp well into your acreage you would get less ownership than you would before the PA.
It behooves the operator to have all wells be the same interest, that way they can send them all to the same facilities and not worry about what came from where. I’m sure XTO would love to have all of the wells in all of the zones in JRU with the same interests. It would not surprise me if they were trying to form big PAs in the BoneSpring and the Wolfcamp so they can simplify facilities and gathering. Which maybe causes things like that.
Does any of that help? I’m not sure why else you would be getting DOs on old wells unless they are drilling new Wolfcamp wells, ran a new DOTO, and decided that their old ownership decks are incorrect and you own part of these 3 wells. But I’m not sure what the 3rd well would be so I am perhaps reaching here.
It’s possible that I used to work Bopco properties for XTO in a prior life. I mean I could dig into it for you if you told me where you own acreage and what your decimals are showing, but the simplest and best thing for you to do IMO is call XTO and ask them wth is going on. Call ExxonMobil 1 817 870 2800, ask to be connected to the Delaware Basin land department. Tell them you need to speak to a division order analyst. Ask him/her what the heck is up. Or call whomever is listed as a contact on your DOs.
Good luck
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Thank you SO much for the explanation! I wish I could understand all of it, lol! I think I get the gist of it but I’m pretty inept at understanding this kind of stuff.
Yeah, it’s kinda neat that my grandparents were so close with the Bass family. My grandad was the GM for Texas 2nd largest ranch before going to Washington to serve in the Eisenhower cabinet. So, they knew a LOT of folks back then. Ike and Mamie were two of my grandparents’ best friends until they passed away.
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