I believe that my husband and I have finally agreed upon terms with Antero Resources for our share of mineral rights. Recently we received a summons and complaint from the State of West Virginia. I need to contact an attorney to look over the terms and lease before we sign. Any recommendations?
I recommend Kyle Nuttall http://www.nuttalllegal.com/
of this forum. I know there have been other recommendations as well. Kyle is very good, very knowledgeable.
I second Nancy’s recommendation. Kyle is currently negotiating our lease with Antero.
Hey, all! Question for clarification: if a lateral well runs through the land you own mineral rights for, do you get royalties for that, even though the well is on someone else’s property/mineral rights? If that makes sense!
Jim Greaver, I guess when you say the well is on someone else’s property you mean the wellpad, the place where the well goes from the surface down? I think if the lateral leg goes under your property, you are in the unit. Maybe not your whole property. I hope somebody can clear this up.
Nancy, yes that us what we’re wondering. If it runs under the property with our mineral rights do we receive a royalty from that well, even if the well pad itself isn’t on any of our mineral property?
Thanks Nancy!
Jim, when the company is ready to drill, they somehow make public what the unit shape is and who the royalty owners are. As I understand it, if they go under your land they have to include you in a unit, unless they don’t frack that portion (sometimes when the vertical part of the well starts to bend, they might not frack that area… I’m not sure of this). Keep looking at drilling permits and when you see your land, you can ask the company.
You are bound by the old lease but any time something needs to be changed (in this case, they want a pooling clause) other things can be negotiated. I have a similar situation, and our landman sounds like Antero doesn’t want to change anything or pay anything. I have heard other landmen are willing to negotiate changes and “inconvenience fee” payment of $500 up. I am have our attorney negotiate this for us. Are you getting paid by Sancho or another company for production on a well on this property?
Jim, another point of view: this question was asked on another forum:
You will get less money from the one well under your property (it will be shared with all in the unit) but you will get money from the other wells on the pad. You do not say if 640 or 1280 but roughly three wells on 640 and 6 on 1280. If they drill one well and hold 1280 acres by production and do not come back for several years to drill the others then lower payment for longer time. Good if you are young, bad if you are old. Also tax bracket … more money all at once may raise your income so you have to pay more tax … less money each month taxed at lower rate depending on your circumstances. If you have a dud under your property you may share in other wells that are better. If you have a great well and others have dud well you will share with them. Pros and cons of large and small unit but no way to predict what is down there so you will only find out if larger unit or smaller unit would have been better after the fact. You could have controlled the unit size in the lease. We have 640 but companies want 1280. They have to drill one well to hold 1280 but two to hold two 640 acre units … one in each direction. My two cents> I know that the Neely Well in Doddridge has ten wells planned on 1394 acres. I have a well at 640 acres with 4 wells planned. Confusing hun??
Arnold, Thanks! Yeah, it can be confusing!
I was just asking because I want to be able to tell my wife’s siblings that we not only benefit from the wells on our own pads, but also from other wells that simply run through our mineral rights grounds.
I just received a letter from Antero asking me to sign a Pooling Agreement. They have attached a copy of a lease form my deceased relative signed in 1989 with Sancho oil and gas. Am I bound by the conditions of this old lease or can I negotiate my own?
If a lease was signed for anything less that 1/8 (12.5%) the company is going to have to provide an affidavit when it applies for a well work permit that says it’s paying 1/8 (12.5%). Otherwise, the state will not approve the permit. If they have provided that affidavit, and they aren’t paying 1/8, you should be able to get them in trouble with the Office of Oil and Gas. You might also be able to sue for back royalties. I’m not confident about that at that, but I suspect it’s possible. I’d have to do some research to figure out what would be the best cause of action.
Has anyone received a letter from Antero filing a missing heirs petition. I was told we would have to petition the court and prove our relationship. Does anyone know what we need to do? Antero advised we need to clean up the title. Thanks. Linda loudin
Linda, I have been wondering the same thing, but I have yet to have anyone tell me it is not worth it! As a matter of fact, I recently spoke to a lawyer friend of ours who does mineral rights work and he said he has one client who is making $10,000 yearly and another who is making $75,000 yearly! And get this, the one who is making 75k has only a fraction of a 1/8 share! Either way, I could use an extra 10k a year!!!
Jim, yes. They can’t take your gas without paying for it, and if the well runs through your property, they’ve got to be taking your gas.
Ok, I am new to all of this! I think I get what you mean now, though!
When we were contacted, Antero’s researcher had already ascertained that through Ancestry.com. They were able to get our ancestor’s death records. They wanted to know if there were any wills that we knew of. They want to determine who the current beneficiary is. Then we each had to sign and notarize Affidavit of Heirships stating that we were related to these people.
Thanks Robin I guess we have to do the proof. I wish I could find out if this worth the effort with respect to royalities