I want to address only your question as to how Colgate can produce your land without a lease (and issue you a division order to begin paying you). But I will do so in very general terms, since there are many variations possible on what I’m going to say.
In Texas, the statutes allow a producer to drill and produce a well drilled on land that they have some, but not all, of the mineral rights under lease. In Texas, that producer is allowed to treat the unleased mineral owner like they are another oil company, not like a royalty owner. That means the unleased interest is considered a “participating mineral interest” or PMI. Since were not approached and asked if you wanted to participate in the well before it was drilled, your interest was automatically deemed “non-consenting” by the drilling company, which I assume was Colgate. Texas law allows Colgate to recoup 100% of your share of the costs of drilling, completing, equipping, and producing the well until that 100% payback is reached. At that point, you would be brought into the well as a PMI owner.
As a PMI owner you are required to pay your proportionate part of the costs of drilling, completing, equipping costs for the well drilled, and then ongoing costs of producing the well each month. But you are not required to pay up-front your PMI share of those costs. You are considered a statutory “partner” in the well. Normally, the operator mails out joint interest billing statements (JIB invoices) to each partner in a well. However, many operators opt to simply deduct those ongoing producing costs from the PMI share of oil or gas sold that month.
Texas law doesn’t allow an operator to ever charge a PMI owner with their proportionate cost of plugging and abandoning (P&A) a well, nor can an operator ever bill a PMI owner for costs that exceed the actual revenue from the well. In other words, there can be no financial liability for the PMI owner beyond the PMI owner’s share of production from the well for any month in which those costs exceed the sales from the well.
An important part of this scenario is the fact that, because there is no lease contract, you don’t own a lease royalty interest in the well. You own a share of proceeds equal to [your net acres contributing to the producing unit] divided by [the total gross acres in that producing unit]. Or, in the case of a horizontal well, you are entitled to [your mineral rights interest] times [number of feet of wellbore perforations under your tract or within 100 feet of your tract] divided by [the total number of feet from first take point (FTP) to the last take point (LTP)].
Horizontal well example: The total distance between the FTP and LTP of the well in the division order is 6,290 feet. Your tract contains 45 feet of that wellbore distance. You own 50% of the mineral rights under your tract. The calculation will be: 50% x 45/6290 = 0.00357711 share of 100% of sale of production from the well. That calculates to $3,577.11 for every $1 million in production revenues from the well, but then your share of monthly operating expenses for the month have been deducted.
If this were my own situation, I would call the division order analyst at Colgate and ask them: (1) do their records show you own an unleased interest in the well in the division order, and (2) what is the effective date that the well reached 100% payout? It’s quite possible that the well paid out 100% several months ago, but you are entitled to your PMI share of all sales proceeds from that effective date forward. For your records, it would also be a good idea to ask them to send you a photocopy of the recorded Declaration of Pooled Unit and copy of the plat (if it is not part of the recorded Declaration as it should be).
Please remember, this is a very generic explanation of just one possible reason why you received a division order covering land you have no record of having leased to anyone, Noble or any other company.
In Texas, it is illegal for any division order to contain any language allowing the issuer of the division order to take possession of any of an owner’s mineral rights as a result of that owner signing the division order. Period. Also, in Texas, a division order can be withdrawn by an owner at any time, after 30 days written notice from the owner. You should visit with an oil and gas attorney licensed in Texas to explain to you more fully everything I’ve discussed here.