Linda, West Virginia ia a race -notice state. If you see a lawyer, I suggest you do it on the basis of whether you have a valid conrtact. If your, call it potential lessee has not recorded the lease, not given you any consideration in cash or certain promises that could be considered consideration, if they have not given you notice of irrevocable acceptance, you may be able to lease to someone else. That is between you and your lawyer.
You might record a statement of non-payment if your lease was recorded, they clouded your title, you can cloud their title [turn about is fair play] if they are playing the game of keeping you in limbo so they can have a free long term “OPTION” on your lease. If you recorded the statement of non-payment, I doubt they would be able to sell your lease because they do not have good title. Cloud on title is usually not a good thing but since you were the one to cloud it, you could just record another document to un-cloud it, no problems. They may be trying to assign your lease to someone for a profit with never any of their own money at risk, they pay you out of what they get and keep the difference.
Possibly you could have your attorney send them a letter that your contract is void due to lack of consideration. Read federal law on contracts, just the basics. If a deal does not have a specific time frame to be completed, then a reasonable time is allowed. If you were stuck holding a bank/time/sight draft, order for pament or bill of exchange, they could well have a date by which time the deal is to be completed or consideration may have failed, usually you have to submit these items to your bank for payment and they forward them to the lessee’s bank for payment which notifies the lessee that the clock is ticking. It is frequently argued that time is of the essence in an oil and gas deal where property value can double or halve in a month or two. If you have some sort of non-negotiable instrument it is vital that you make copies of it and place it with your bank for so they can send it for payment.
You are in limbo right now, you need to progress through this to a lease or not being leased again. It will be a load off your shoulders, I know, I’ve been there.
Linda, What district is your mineral rights in? Have you leased your mineral rights out, if so what district and Map Number and Partial number? and when did you lease? If you have answers to these questions, someone on this forum will try and help you.
Arnold
Linda, Is it a Marcellus well? Again if you could tell us your map # and Parcel # and also who you leased it to, we may be able to help. There is a lot going on in New Milton, that is why we need the info.
They don’t have to drill at all. The leases anymore are written to give them the option to just hold on to the lease until it expires, if that’s what they want to do. They have flipped a lot of leases from what I understand…have drilled very little there. Have they paid any money up front? A member of my family that is included in our leases was able to vacate her lease with them based on non-payment. Have you called 10 Mile?
Can you tell me good ones to contact?
Hi, Your site has bee most helpful. I talked to a landman for Antero this afternoon. I have 7.9 acres in Doddridge in the Grant unit. Antero tried to purchase my rights in December for 1200 an acre. I have done quite a bit of research. The landman informed me I have working rights, not mineral rights, and I know that they have paid another holder in the same unit 3000.00 per acre. I asked him for an 18% royalty along with payment and he informed me that working rights and mineral rights are not the same thing, and that I should expect no royalties. Is this correct?
I need to know if there is a difference between working rights and mineral rights. Their original offer was for 1200.00 and no royalties. If I could get some advice it would be most appreciated. Theproperty came to me from my father who purchaed this in 1967. It was a 1/16 interest. I understand that there is also another 1.9 acres which they did not include in the first offer. Any assistance would be most appreciated. Thank you.
Peter, I don’t know anything about working interests, so I thought I would try to look up on the internet to see what it was. I found this explanation which may indicate a type of working interest that you may have: http://blackbearddata.com/oil-and-gas-royalties-what-they-are/inves… , and this is a page from the same website that may explain the difference between a working interest and mineral rights: http://blackbearddata.com/oil-and-gas-royalties-what-they-are/what-… . As to why you would get royalties from one and not the other, it seems like the working interest has more of a royalties built into it? You may want to speak to a lawyer - I know there have been two or three recommended on this site who are experienced in WV O&G law.
Made my phone calls this morning… Ten Mile does not have our lease.
We are already with Mineral Resource Mgmt.LLC. Can anyone give me information on contacting them. The number I looked up goes to a voice mail. Thanks Linda
Hi, I was wondering if anyone has experienced a similar situation: my family and I were approached from 2 different landmen in November regarding leasing our mineral rights in Dodridge County. When approached with the original leases we consulted a lawyer. We then negotiated for a 15% royalty, an indemnity clause, a no storage clause, no warranty clause and no post-production clause. We got everything we asked for except that the wording on the post-production cost seems to be causing a problem. The landman insist if we want no pp clause it has to be from gas taken from the wellhead because of an accounting nightmare which Antero wont pay for. I asked them to word it " pp cost and material enhancement cost may not be deducted from lessors royalty payments on gas or oil. This includes royalties calculated @ point of sale and royalties calculated from wellhead." This apparently had to “go through Antero’s lawyers”. It is now Feb. and getting in touch with our landmen is difficult and communication has been scarce. Can anyone relate to this or provide an explanation. It feels as though they are not as interested now, when initially they sounded like time was crucial and wanted things done by deadlines (which we ignored.) Also, all the changes are added as an addendums and we are wondering if that is safe? I hate to involve the lawyer again (more costs for us) Any thoughts would be appreciated.
They want you to rush things. Take your time an do it the way you want it. I’ve been working on mine with Antero for 9 months now. All cause they say yes to my terms an then my lawyer draws up the lease an then Antero changes the wording an I called them out on it. So now it’s costing them more!!
Time is always crucial to them, do you know how much landmen get paid? For the landman, it’s his job to get leases signed, if he doesn’t get the job done, what happens? Negotiation is not good for the lessee, the lease they send you is the be all end all hallelujah I’m taking the office to lunch agreement in the lessees favor, they don’t want it changed which may happen with time to think / negotiate.
Thank you everyone for your in-put. I am so grateful for this site!
Hi Stephanie, Thank you so much for the info on working rights versus mineral rights. When I spoke to the Antero Landman he mentioned that perhaps Anetero would give me an over ride. I assume that means a royalty after expenses are recoverd, i.e. a portion of the net profits. But regardless the explanation is a great help. This is really some complicated stuff, and this forum is great, I have learned a lot . Thanks again. P
Carla, back last May, this is what we got from our landman from Antero in an email. It is probably very similar or the same as to what they are trying to push on you, with the deadlines and everything. To me it reads, “we won’t take out any money… unless we want to”. I could be wrong, but that’s what it sounds like to my unexperienced lawyer speak. I understand what you mean about the expense of lawyers, and because of that we never hired one. I believe if you can afford it, you should use one, but we ended up going with this statement (below) in our lease. I have no idea what it means exactly, but our landman (in whom I have little trust) assured me it was the best that Antero would do. This is what he said:
"I am pasting a copy of the gross proceeds (market enhancement) clause requested:
Stephanie,
This is my final offer. Please do not request any further changes. The language for the gross proceeds clause pasted above is final, also."
Mike, if I am allowed to change 3 words in a paragraph, I can probably change it’s entire meaning.
There was a lady on the forums that had a company agree to her shut in clause which was 2 years cumulative and the lessee changed cumulative to read 2 years consecutive and she didn’t catch it. When she questioned the lessee they said , what do you know! It did say cumulative, oh well, nothing can be done about it now.
Some good info coming out today ( Weekly Report) pertaining to New Milton District, Toms Fork Area, and more. Permits # 47-017-6403,6404,6405. I know two of them are getting real close to one of mine,( Map 14, partial 21), in fact they are next door. Mr Roberson, you might want to look. There could be HOPE yet.
Linda, I called Ten Mile today and was told they had assigned my lease to Antero Resources, now all I have to do is find if it’s been permitted. It would sure have saved me some time if Ten Mile had notified me of the NEW assignment.
I am trying to get a clause in my lease about the company notifying me if they assign.
Will do Arnold! You know they say they need all sorts of notification if we lessors want to assign or pass on to our heirs, so I think they should give us the same consideration!