They cannot under that statue compel you or force your hand by court order Ms. Gray.
But can they sell the mineral rights out from under us as stated in the letter on the steps of the courthouse?
We received the following letter today from an attorney representing Antero Resources Corporation. We do not support fracking and are not interested in signing a lease. The letter reads as follows:
Dear Mr. Gray,
I am writing regarding your fractional mineral interest in 67.50 acres located in Grant District, Doddridge County, WV. Our client Antero Resources Corporation (Antero) has been trying to obtain a lease from you to accommodate development of the Marcellus Shale underlying this tract. It is my understanding that you have not yet executed a lease. If you maintain this position and refuse to participate in development of this tract, Antero will have no choice but to file suit against you and ask the Court to partition your fractional interest in the 67.50 acre tract pursuant to West Virginia Code Section 37-4-1 et seq. This statue provides relief to property owners whose cotenants are blocking development of a jointly owned mineral estate. In an effort to facilitate development, the Court has the authority to convey your interest to one or more of your cotenants, or sell it to the highest bidder on the courthouse steps. I urge you to engage in negotiations with Antero so that you can seek the maximum benefit from an oil and gas lease and avoid litigation. Please contact me by October 31, 2013. If I do not hear from you by October 31, 2013, Antero will have no choice but to file suit to protect its interest. Thank you. Attorneys at Law Steptoe & Johnson.
I would appreciate comments on how to proceed. I don’t know exactly how many heirs are involved and Antero of course won’t share that information.
I
Tenants in common, joint tenants and coparceners of real property, including minerals, lessees of mineral rights other than lessees of oil and gas minerals and stockholders of a closely held corporation when there are no more than five stockholders and the only substantial asset of the corporation is real estate, shall be compelled to make partition, and the circuit court of the county wherein the land or estate, or any part thereof, may be, has jurisdiction, in cases of partition, and in the exercise of that jurisdiction, may take cognizance of all questions of law affecting the legal title, that may arise in any proceedings. The state hereafter shall, whenever it is an owner of an undivided interest in any land or real estate, together with other persons, become a party plaintiff in any proceedings by any person entitled to demand partition under the first sentence of this section. Before instituting suit for partition the person entitled to demand it shall notify the proper official who has supervision of the state land and thereafter they shall proceed as they determine best. In all cases resulting in partition or sale the costs of suit shall come from the proceeds of sale. No state official in charge of state lands may refuse to perform his duty in any case where any person is entitled to demand a partition, or sale under this article.
I own property in Doddridge Co and had a pipeline company call me expressing interest in putting a marcellus compressor site on my property. Antero had previously wanted to put a wellsite on my property and offered me peanuts so I declined! Does anyone have an idea of what a compressor site is worth?
I would love to speak with you about it messina. Please call or txt me at 304-997-7809 at your earliest convinence.
Thank You Jennifer for your response. I think I will contact someone concerning the letter that the Aterno attorney wrote to my husband since they are stating that they can do it. They are trying to intimidate him into signing a lease. Perhaps the attorney general. Thanks again.
Mrs. gray I would be happy to direct you to the law firm I use.
No ma’am they absolutely CANNOT as long as your taxes are paid, you have no worries.
Thank you. Not thinking I need a lawyer, at least not at this point. If what the lawyer stated in the letter isn’t true-- that I can not be forced into a lease and the rights can’t be sold out from under me (on the courthouse stairs… then I think the direction that I need to go will be to file a complaint with The Office of Disciplinary Counsel in West Virginia. There must be established standards of ethics and professional competence. Why would a lawyer write something in a letter that clearly isn’t true and then threaten to file suit against me. Intimation is my only guess. Thanks again for all you help.
My comment is for Messina who listed the question concerning a compressor station on their property. Be cautious about this and the location of it. If it’s near your home, you might want to reconsider, if its on a remote piece of land, you’ll probably be ok. From what I’m told, they can be very noisy depending on how they are built. I attached a youtube video showing the difference between a noisy one and a quiet one. If you decide on allowing them to build, you may want to have some kind of clause stating about noise db level. I don’t know if this is a possible clause to add, but I would check into it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqIIYXeHvw0
Actually, it took them three months to come up to full production, but it has been steady since then.
Actually, that is pretty scary. They probably want you to be part (or the whole) of a partition suit, forcing the sale of the defendants (and possibly your) interests. A way around a lack of forced pooling laws. Another O&G did this to us, but they were the actual owners of the other interest and they did not have to ask a landowner to participate.
Mineral interests as well as the land is subject to partition. If you were the sole mineral owner of a parcel, they could not touch you. They would have to hope for a forced pooling law in WV. After our experience, I was wondering if they were, in fact, approaching partial interest holders of a parcel to attempt partition. That is a risky bit for that interest holder who agrees to the suit (he wants in so he can force the holdout since he wants his interests drilled). If no agreement can be had, the very end result would be that all the interests would be sold at public auction. I couldn’t believe all this until we went through it. However, they must get one of the partial interest holders to agree to the suit. I can’t get my head rapped around how they would be dealing with the plaintiff interest holder. They may hold a lease, but I don’t believe they would be entitled to sue for that reason alone. Would be curious to see how that worked.
Can’t guess what’s in their minds! I’m sure you have been told this but I would really think twice about selling. We have a Marcellus in production where we exceeded our $2500/net bonus in the first three months of production (lot of condensates) with only a 16% royalty. These things really pump out money! Here is an interesting article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP2e119ea41fcd43248a082bc6e6ad4e24.ht…
Here’s an entertaining one: I was recently asked by someone from Antero’s law office to join with them as co-plaintiff against a non-signer for one parcel that Antero is in a panic for. What makes that so highly entertaining is that I haven’t signed either! Uh-oh. How’s that for a mixup? Surely that is not a legal trick endorsed by Antero, is it? Where do they get these guys, anyway?!!!-jnk
Exactly, Mr. White. My simple verbal agreement over the phone (recorded, I’m sure) would likely have been enough to get the ball rolling against the mystery holdout AND me. The sly part was that more than one parcel was mentioned, and one of those parcels is one for which I am sole surface and sole mineral owner. And I thought the land men were bad! This guy works at the Antero office with the rest of the hired help down at the kennel. (Oops, I meant, office complex. It just looks like a kennel. And at this point they’re acting like a pack of dogs.) At least they aren’t good at it. But a call/e-mail like that could sure scare the pants off an unsuspecting mineral owner, couldn’t it! Such tactics are certainly not a smart way to buy community goodwill. Just the opposite, in fact. I may not live in Doddridge. But my people did for generations. And they are all rolling over in their graves right there at the Seventh-Day Baptist graveyard, I’m sure. It’s just the sort of thing their ancestors fled Ireland and Scotland over, in fact. History repeats, doesn’t it.-jnk.
The parcel he stressed is not the one I own fully. He stressed the one for which I am only a partial-interest holder. The one for which I am sole surface and land owner (according to my paperwork, not his) was mentioned as an aside. That has been done in a similar fashion by three landmen–trying to piggy-back the fully-owned parcel when appearing to call about another. But my assumption is that my appearing to agree to join Antero as a co-plantiff could be used to compromise my position with the parcel they most want, and for which they have already permitted a well without having signed me. I am a hard nut for them to crack, since my ducks are in a row proving ownership but I am only interested in selling, not leasing to (basically, entering into business with) a company that associates with people using these kinds of tactics. And if I won’t join them in a lease contract, why would I join them as co-anything legally? It is not my intention to stop them or to be a headache to them. But if they want any of my interests, they have no choice other than (1) to buy all my surface and interests to buy me out completely OR (2) to wait for forced pooling. It isn’t easy for them to do either when the clock is ticking on their prematurely-obtained permit, I guess. They know my asking price but refuse to make a counter-offer, since that would apparently document that they agree on our ownership, it appears to me. But I’m no lawyer, so maybe I have no idea exactly what it is that they are ultimately trying to pull. I just know I’m not hiring a lawyer until they make their offer clear. Once they talk sense about something for us to sign, THEN we’ll get a lawyer to look things over. Not before. I’m not going to waste money negotiating foolishness. If they want it, they can make a purchase offer for it or arrange for someone else to make that offer.-jnk
Thanks, Mr. White. My asking price reflects my knowledge of the value of the interests. I am not in a good tax position for increased income at the moment. Only capital gains. And recent bad experiences with drillers (they aren’t all bad, just some, of course) has soured me to entering into business with Antero as anything other than a potential stockholder one day. But your point is a good one and very well taken. I am glad things are working out “well” for you. (Sorry for the bad pun.) 
And I appreciate all your comments here and elsewhere, Sir.
Peter, is this an actual working interest in a well, or a partial interest in mineral rights on a tract? If just a working interest in a well, that is specific to that well. If on the lease itself, I am unsure of your obligation if they drill; you might need to pay your part for a well. I am not an attorney so don’t know that. I have seen partial interests in leases sold, but usually this is one company selling to another company.
The other possibility is that it could be a mineral (oil and gas) interest in the acreage and not in the well or lease operations.
1/16 is a pretty standard portion of a working interest, from what I have seen.
If you know where it is, you can look on the Office of Oil and Gas map and see what is happening in the area. If you need help with that, just ask.
If you need an attorney recommendation, ask about that too. There is a good one on this site: Kyle Nuttall.
Do you have the lease assignment where he purchased it? or other paperwork?