Jacqueline/Richard, I will try to answer your questions as best as I can. First of all Richard, a big difference between a vertical well and a Horizontal well. with a vertical well you have a small platt, with only a few players, a landowner and maybe a few Royalty owners, A vertical well usually takes a Month to drill and yes you should be getting a check within two or three months. A Horizontal well involves much more, a much larger tract (600-1400) acres, many more players ( landowners and royalty owners, it takes much longer to drill a horizontal well 3-4 months. Now after a well is drilled and fracked “the good stuff” is pumped into storage tanks and shipped to market. Where it is determined the thirty day rate, then comes the paper work, who get’s how much, this in it’s self is a huge keg of worms, all leases will go back to the attorneys and the process begins. From talking to people that have received royalty from Antero , they get a division order than comes the check. Jacqueline, to answer your question, I would assume completion means when the product is shipped to the market.
Diagram of a Typical Hydraulic Fracturing Operation
Have to admit that I don’t know if the wells are vertical or horizontal. But I am told my properties are included in The Swisher Unit, The Josie Unit and The Cross Unit. And that it would be a while before I heard anything about royalties. It’s a difficult process!!!
Richard, I am just wondering why this isn’t a good place to seek shale gas/oil. There are many small acreages producing gas (and a little liquid) from shallower depths that should be developed?
Jacqueline/Richard, one thing more, a vertical may go as deep as 2500 ft, a horizontal well 8-10,000 ft, BIG DIFFERENCE, and much more expensive and time consuming. Antero has 15 drilling rigs, including two shallow rigs operating now, 217 horizontal wells completed and online, the last I heard only two frackers. 345,000 net acres in the Southwestern core, I believe this includes Doddridge, Harrison, Tyler, Richie. Please, anyone correct me if I am wrong. I got some of this info from Antero’s annual report.
The purpose of this forum is to get the info out to all those that have royalty or landowner interest in Doddridge County, however day’s will go by with out any posting, I have lot’s of questions and I’am sure you all do as well. I know with all the leases signed that you are out there wondering what do I do next, so we are here, if we can help we will or find out how. My rant.
Jacqueline, Cross #1&2 was just modified, per the weekly report ( yesterday). Reference map 13, partial 30. has GUM Referenced, Permit #47 017-6238 & 6240, I have seen the other well’s permitted, and would suggest the you go through the Downloads or weekly reports to find more info on those wells.
To all > I don’t believe that Antero is drilling any vertical wells at this time as they have there hands full with Horizontal, PLEASE correct me if I am wrong.
Nancy, in Doddridge County alone there are hundreds of old well’s that have either gone dry, or was never worked on. As Antero, EQT and others lease out property, these well’s are sitting there so they have them plugged. Look through the weekly reports and you will see a list of wells being plugged. In some cases Antero, EQT ect will drill them out deeper and they will become Horizontal. See the post by Mr Gormet, this is what he means by developing shallow wells.
Mr. Stuart, thanks for getting the site going again. The major problem with the lack of info is once you sign a lease you are out of the picture as far as the company sees it. The only time you may here again from the company is in the form of a check. That is sure a far cry from the “courting” they do when they are trying to get your signature on a lease. They kind of leave and ride off into the sunset after that. These companies are not your good neighbor hometown business people that you are used to dealing with. Just the facts is all they want. With all the info folks give them that cuts there search time to a minimum, they should compensate you. The people of Wv. are not getting the lease money they should be getting. You can check with Pa. and Oh. and look at the figures they are paying there. I believe they are searching and drilling for the same product that we have here in Wv. but offering a fraction of the money. How can they justify that. They do it by finding unassuming mineral owners who know nothing about their mineral property ownership. Sound familiar?? Ask lot’s of questions and take your time and find out what’s going on.
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.
Mr. Stuart, Thanks for the valuable info. I realize there are some who check into this info but, I would put the percentage low. For whatever reason some people do not know how important mineral rights are. They do not know that it is property. If they took the mineral rights as serious as they do their home real estate they would not be left in the dark. I just got a call the other day from agents wanting to lease property that we have. I guess the original agent bailed and left no paperwork to follow up. The new agents about lost it when I told them I had three unsigned leases in my folder. I would not want to have that job for nothing. Anyway I can save them several months of digging or I can sit here and wait them out. As for money, I think the companies jumped in these counties and flashed some cash to a lot of unsuspecting heirs who had very little funds to start with. Once they got there foot in the area the established low bonus and royalties, the price went stagnate. When they compare figures from 10 years ago and then flash $$$$ an acre at them now, then it’s a tough choice. Throw in the take it today or we are gone or you are the only one holding us up from drilling in there also. It sure pays to check all the info out there and share and ask questions on this forum before you jump into any lease agreement. There are two kinds of questions that people are interested in. One is for those who have not signed leases and the other is for those who have. Folks, don’t be bashful!!
Just speaking for myself here, but don’t have the time to engage in philosophical debate about self-reliance vs. let them come find me. I joined this forum to find information pertaining to my leases in Doddridge as I am not geographically close to the area. Mr Stuart was kind enough to provide me a link. Although I admit it is difficult information to navigate, I will continue to try. I am in agreement with DT in that Antero courted me and I spent a great deal of time finding information FOR them and I feel a bit like a jilted bride in that I can’t get any information from them now. However, I do stand to profit from my work AND theirs and I accept that I have to bear some responsibility as well. My leases do not have numbers assigned to them and I apologize for the length of the description, but it is all I have.
Assessor Tract #6-16-15, New Milton District, Brushy Fork: North by lands of E.C Crislip, East by Devericks Heirs, South by Thomas Brown and A.M Gum, West by John C. Haught and A.M Gum
Assessor Tract #6-13-31, New Milton District on the Waters of Meathouse Fork of Middle Creek Island: North by George L. Rymer, J. Lash, and W.W Pratt, East by Hezekiah Meeks, South by John N. Rymer, West by George L Rymer
3)Assessor Tract #6-13-9 New Milton District, Brushy Fork:North by Robert Haught et al, East by Garry R Norton, South by Robert Haught et al, West by Robert Haugh et al
Assessor Tract #6-13-part of 30; 6-13-30-1, New Milton Distrcit, Meathouse Fork: North by County Road 25, East by Meeks Heirs, South by Cora Dillon, West by Orval Swisher
All of these were negotiated at 15%. The only information I was told by Antero is that these properties are included in The Swisher Unit which began drilling in early November 2013, The Josie Unit which began drilling in late October 2013, and the Cross Unit which was scheduled to begin drilling in April 2014.
SO…if anyone knows anything pertaining to these properties, I’d be grateful. I can’t find anything in the reports regarding wither Swisher or Josie and am uncertain if Cross 1 or Cross 2 pertains to these.
