Doddridge County, WV - Oil & Gas Discussion archives

Mary: If you click on the picture, it will enlarge, Picking up much more detail.

Mary, This should answer your question on the map.

http://downloads.wvgs.wvnet.edu/BatchInfo/doddridge/4701706142platO…

Copy and paste in google to show your map.

Mr. Stuart, thanks for the information you just posted. I am technically and electronically challenged so I must wait until one of my children can help with the copy and paste. Hopefully one evening this week I will get that help.

I have been following this discussion with much interest, but so far have had nothing of value to add. Arnold, I was very happy when you posted that link to the downloads of the plat maps for Mary. Some time ago, I found them, but was never able to relocate what I had found! I have been looking up the 2014 plat maps and maybe this is old news, or no news at all, but I found one with your name on it. I am no expert looking at these, but it appears that the Zimka 1H well is planned to go right next to your leased property, but will not be going through it (so no payoff for you). This is the plat: http://downloads.wvgs.wvnet.edu/BatchInfo/doddridge/4701706423platO…

With all the talk about maps, drilling and getting help finding where this property is and such, i would like to know one thing. Has anyone got a royalty check yet? If so, how long did it take from the date of drilling to the checks in the mail. This site is helpful to many folks and a lot of the folks live far away. The info on here has helped those find their property from far away. Some have ventured here to look for themselves but, most have to rely on the info from the good people on here that tell them where to look. In the area where your property is located, there are many people who know the property and could pass it on in a conversation. My hope would be that the people who know the areas where things are happening would join in on this site. You would think there would be hundreds of owners join these sights instead of a handful, with most living in other states. Doddridge has been most active but Tyler and Ritchie will be next once Doddridge is explored out. You would have thought the Ritchie site was frozen with hardly a whisper on there. I know Ritchie has a few areas that are desirable but no one is talking. Imagine that, No one talking??

Arnold and Mary, just to make sure we are talking about the same thing, the plat for the well shows part of the tracts that would be on a tax map which is just a small part of the county map. So they have different purposes. The tax maps often have 20 or 30 parcels on them. I think they cost around $5 or $6 per map. If you didn’t have the tax map and parcel provided by the lease and didn’t own the surface it could be a lot harder to find oil and gas rights location. I have read that some counties are tying these together but I know Ritchie hasn’t yet and I doubt if Doddridge has either.

Stephanie, I have several like the one you posted, I have an old saying>Whoops just missed another one. DT, I have not received a check as yet, but I do know of a couple that has, and it usually takes 8-9 months after the well has been drilled, before you receive a check you will receive a division order. We did cover this all in a previous post.

Very good post Richard. The costs that these companies can take from your royalty is huge if a lease is signed and not had any changes made. I still think that the mineral owners in this area are being taken advantage of for lack of knowledge on what is going on here. These companies are not here for you and I but, for the big boys back in Colorado and such. At least you are in contact with the local folks and can post on that fact if you hear anything. The main thing now is that talk is cheap so where’s the check Mr. oil/gas co.?

Yea, Listen to what Jacqueline is saying, an example is the lady mentioned in my last post signing 300 Leases, imagine the task involved with her, we are not talking just a few leases but many hundreds, so I can see (somewhat) that there could be delays, like all of you, I am still frustrated.

Mr. Robinson, they can do whatever they like with the unpaid royalty. Some people think there is an actual account somewhere while their royalty is in suspense but it is really just a line in a ledger that contains how much the well has made and how much it owes. The operator enjoys the months, sometimes year long float on the money.

I realise that the operator’s title people are busy (probably because the operators have not hired enough of them) and it may take 6 months to a year to totally have every interest figured to reach 100% of ownership, but I think they should pay those whose ownership they have confirmed as soon as they have confirmed it? You don’t need 100% confirmation of all ownership to start paying. There are some wells that they will never know who owns everything with 100% certainty, in which case I believe that the operator gets all parties they think may be involved to sign stipulations of interest, saying none of them own it and the operator holds the unclaimed interest. The operator could pay those interests they have confirmed. At worst they could make an adjustment later if they find they did overpay someone by a small amount, operators make adjustments on my checks all the time when the price of gas changed mid month. They will not pay as soon as feasable because they enjoy the float.

Mineral rights are not recorded like actual land maps. Gotta go thur records like wills. It is very hard to find. That’s why oil/gas company’s hire people to look mineral rights up. An they get paid very good.

Nancy, I will be speaking with the Doddridge assessor tomorrow I think. I will order a map. Thanks for your help. Mary Lee

Arnold, Yes, we talked about royalty checks. I ask last week if anyone had received a check to say so. You say that you know a couple who have. I hope that you don’t take this the wrong way, because I mean no disrespect to you. However, so far no one I know of has received one. Antero drilled on me and gas was flowing from two wells in Oct 2013. As of today I have yet to receive a DO. I have lived in that area on and off for 76 years. The last time I actually lived there for any length of time was in 1982. I own 50% of the mineral rights for the family farm and most of the surface rights. I know my neighbors back there. I spend time each summer there in a RV. I do not know one person in either Doddridge or Harrison County who has said " I received a royalty check from Antero on “insert date or month” for a horizontal Marcellus well".

If you look at the lists of mineral rights owners for most property in Doddridge, or any of the other counties in that area, you will find that many have owners numbering into the hundreds. Running down all those owners has to be time consuming. However, I would think that before an operator invested 3 to 8 million dollars to build a pad, drill and frack well and build transportation infrastructure they would have to have signed, verified leases. So, what’s left? Determining what percentages to pay each owner. Why would that be so hard? Here is another question. What can the operator do with the proceeds prior to paying it out in royalties? Can they use it to fund ongoing operations? Can they invest it in other things? Can they use it as collateral for other financing? I have a few other questions, but fear that I have probably put everyone to sleep by now.

In closing, I ask once again, If you have received a royalty check from Antero please tell us the time frames. I am asking for no details other than time between fracking and receipt of DO. And, if subsequent receipt of check, that time frame. Thank you.

Mr.Robinson, The next that you are in WV Doddridge County, drive on RT 50 to Morgansville, look to the south and you will see several wells on a pad, Reference permit 47-17-6086 H 6, I will not give you names, you can look them up by going to the permit. All have received Royalty checks since last may, I know some of these people, one well was complete in Oct of 2013 and Royalty checks were issued in May 2013. There will be a total of 10 wells on this pad, I don’t know how many are completed. I know of another person that has signed over 300 leases in Doddridge, Richey, Tyler, etc, all from Antero, The last time that I talked to her, she had received one royalty check. So we are all in the same boat. To answer you question WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG , I have no idea. Maybe someone a lot smarter then me can provide an answer. I do have a contact in Denver who works as an analyst ( div order dept) I will give you her Telephone # 303-357-7310, she might know something about your well. We are all frustrated, I hope that Denver can give you some answers about your Well. One thing more, have you contacted others that are in the same track as your well?

On this topic…I was told (by Denver) that after the wells hit, they have to engage in yet another title search which can be quite protracted when it comes to some mineral rights that have multiple heirs. And by multiple, I mean 25 or 30…sometimes less, sometimes more. Even though title searches are conducted by Antero prior to drawing up the leases, I was told that these are different…though when pushed, she couldn’t tell me how they were different. Just passing n what I was told in December.

Another question I have is how do I get our lease number? In looking at some of the permits I see that they list the lease numbers of those affected by the well. I looked at the papers that were sent for us to sign and there is a blank line next to “lease number”. Is that something that should have been sent to us or do I need to contact someone? Who do I contact? Thanks.

Nancy, do you mean the landman? Or is there a specific department called the Land Dept. for Antero? Sorry for my ignorance.

To Mr Robinson: I posted a couple of weeks ago what I do when I sign a lease, I do not sit around and wait for a check to arrive when there are so many tools available, if one knows how to use a computer. I suggest that at this point you use #3. I will post the above post again>

Hi, thanks DT for bringing out some of our problems with signing leases and lack of info after signing leases. We do have TOOLS that can help us along the way and I will start with tool #1>" this forum". I will start out by SHARING, SO HERE GOES, I recently signed a lease with Antero in the New Milton District for 2000.00 ac and 16% Royalty, Map 4, partial 6, borders lands of Nesler, Haessly Baland & Lowther. Was the price fair, I don’t know, maybe someone out there knows someone in that area that can compare, this is called SHARING. I file this info away for awhile, but all the time, I use Tool #2, The Weekly report, looking for the PERMIT to be issued is a sign that at least something good is happening. The permit will show a map with all the landowners and Royalty owners, now I use tool #3 THE TELEPHONE, By locating someone on that map that lives in the area, they will have a wealth of info, such as > is piping being brought in, is the pad being laid out, are they starting to drill, have they finished drilling, have they fracked, ETC, ETC. So DT, you really don’t have to sit around waiting for that check, as long as you have these tools, you will have some sort of "PIECE OF MIND.

Our situation is such that we found out through other family members that were being contacted by Antero that we also were heirs to mineral rights. At the time the landman was courting us he mentioned we had interest in two parcels: 14-36 and 14-36.1. After all the negotiating was done and we got the actual lease papers to sign, there was another parcel added to the mix, 14-23. Because of this after-the-fact addition, and because so much of these mineral rights are going to heirs generations down from where they originated from, and because of the discussion of unclaimed/unknown mineral owners and held royalties it has got me wondering how probable is it that we may be one of those unclaimed mineral owners? I’m not only talking about the new wells being permitted, but I’m wondering about all the “old” wells all around that area. Are we supposed to be proactive about this and make sure no one missed us along the way? How can we be proactive? Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions about this? We are also out of town and find this forum very helpful, so thanks in advance!

Stephanie, about being proactive in finding out about possible other rights, I know how I have done with Ritchie county records but I think Doddridge is not as far along with access to records. Ritchie has all the records scanned including the old grantor grantee indexes. For a fee they will send copies of the indexes and you can then order copies of the deeds and leases etc which are listed. I think Doddridge doesn’t have those records scanned and can’t copy them for you long distance. You have to go get in line or hire someone. Anybody know about this?