By abstract map if you are talking about something showing survey boundaries and abstract numbers for Texas counties, go to the General Land Office or Railroad Commission’s GIS sites. Here’s a link for GLO’s [GIS Map Viewer]
Most County appraisal districts also have GIS maps online showing survey boundaries along with surface ownership.
Thanks. Now that I know where to get this, I will save it for references.
A few more leases in SW Fayette were filed last month (September 2023).
Baytex filed leases in Abstracts 318 and 240 west of Flatonia, and Rosewood Resources filed leases in Abstracts 180 and 35 south of Flatonia.
Quite a few other leases were also filed in September, but they were all in the northern part of the county.
A few more leases in SW Fayette were filed last month (October 2023).
Baytex filed leases in Abstracts 318, 336, 175 and 240 north and west of Flatonia, Rosewood Resources filed leases in Abstracts 180 and 76 south and east of Flatonia, and Matrix Revolution filed a lease in Abstract 76.
But, I haven’t seen any new W-1’s (drilling permits) yet granted for this area. I guess we’ll see.
Thanks for the update. I quickly scanned this report to see if Baytex was coming my way and to see if my best friends paperwork that lives on FM 154 had been filed. Their paperwork is complete; but, not filed nor have they gotten any money yet. For now it looks like Baytex is the only group interested North of Flatonia and they seem to be pretty much following the old original Geo Southern lease acres. Thanks again and still waiting on some group to get interested in our SW acres.
ROCC has filed some completion reports for several of its wells around Flatonia that they brought in late in 2023.
Sapele C and Sapele D, about a mile and a half west of Flatonia show initial production of 1191 and 985 BPD respectively.
Douglas Fir B, about a mile northwest of Flatonia showed 1009 BPD, and Bristlecone B and Bristlecone C, about a mile south of Flatonia showed 1209 and 1182 BPD respectively.
We’ll see, I guess, how fast the decline is. Those all show Eagle Ford production rather than Austin Chalk.
In December 2023, several more leases were filed in SW Fayette, with all of them around Flatonia.
No new drilling permits applied for since late November in Fayette County, and those by ROCC (BASSWOOD A and B) were 3 miles south of Flatonia; hopefully, we will see some new permits north of town in 2024.
January 2024 saw a few more leases being filed in SW Fayette County.
Rosewood Resources filed some in Abstracts 318, 175 and 180 mostly north and northeast of Flatonia.
Baytex filed in Abstracts 235, 240 175, 49 and 318 west, north and northeast of Flatonia.
It seems a lot of money is being spent to lease lately. I imagine most are 3+2 year deals, but to hold those properties longer I guess they’ll need to put together some pretty big units and then drill just enough to hold the acreage.
Time will tell. Of course, as a mineral owner, sometimes more can be made just collecting bonuses every 5 years and not caring if they ever drill or not, especially if the price of oil isn’t high, the unit size is large, and the well declines quickly.
And, some of us may find this interesting. It’s a fairly high bonus offer to lease just SE of Moulton:
Current Lavaca County lease offer
From the gentleman’s post:
We were offered a 3 year primary $1200-1400 lease bonus,
with 3 yr option to extend and 20-22% royalty.
Henry Vollentine Survey, A-479, Lavaca County, Tx.
Is this a good offer or should we negotiate?
We are new to this, so any information you can provide
will be very helpful.
I saw that. I am still sitting over here just east of Praha waiting. Chevron did some seismic surveys over here (including my place) maybe 10 years ago. I got word (through a friend of a friend), that the surveys were very promising, but deeper than what was currently being drilled (into the Eagleford Shale). I got another offer from some company wanting to buy my mineral rights, and when that has happened in the past, I have gotten a lease offer several months later. Still waiting.
Alan, that’s interesting information about the seismic surveys. I wonder what formation they’re looking at?
I know on the west end of the Eagle Ford there’s a deeper shale formation called the Pearsall Shale, and up in Brazos and Burleson Counties there’s a deeper formation called the Woodbine (or Eaglebine) but for Fayette all I’ve ever known to be drilled was the Austin Chalk or Eagle Ford.
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Baytex Energy, thru landman, lease offer for <10 acres on J. M. Molino Survey, A-235 for $500/250 per acre 3 years/2years and 20% royalty. Fair offer or lowball?
Because it is thru a land man, I would think it is a little low. If they won’t raise the price, go for 22% royalties
@SCCLT Many of us do not want the two year option to renew as it is rarely in your favor and the bonus stated now may not be competitive at that time.
I used to post here (not in this particular thread) fairly often but quit because nothing was happening east of Moravia or south of Swiss Alp so what was the point. But some interesting events have happened that I thought I’d share.
I’m assuming that interested parties have heard of Acaval, a leasing company with their office located in Schulenburg. Last summer they began leasing land from about three miles south of town on 77 off NE toward Dubina with most of the leases being in Brookfield, Sargeant, Burnham, O’Farrell, etc. You get the idea. It was a strange checkerboard of leases and I think it was because there was a funding issue and so the holes were never filled in. I was one of the unlucky ones.
So fast forward to this week. We got a call from a landman(woman) wondering if we’d be interested in leasing. We said sure and so received the package yesterday. I don’t want to say too much yet because it’s not a done deal but the terms are good, some of the fine print notwithstanding. I’ll circle back when/if the deal gets done and provide some additional information. I will say that the prospective Lessee is KEW Drilling.
Thanks for sharing that. I recall the Acaval activity posted here about a year or so ago, and was surprised by the area of the county they were leasing. And it seemed, like you said, they were offering decent terms.
Conventional wisdom says that part of the county is pretty much out of the liquids window, and with gas prices so far down right now, I wonder if they know something we don’t.
If I may ask – this just an oil and gas lease, right? Sometimes you wonder if someone would try to slip in other minerals that we just don’t know about yet. I doubt it in this case, though, since you mentioned KEW Drilling.
It’s just the usual O&G lease. I won’t say it’s the ‘standard’ Producer’s 88 form because it has wording that’s been changed, but nothing out of the ordinary. That’s really all I know because any neighbors that I could talk to leased to Acaval last summer. I have no idea where else they may be leasing but will post any additional information here.
WI, glad something brought you back.
Expect you know, but based on dealing with them in West Texas KEW sometimes fronts for folks who prefer staying behind the curtain until the leasing is done.
Might also keep in mind the number of wells now being drilled as allocation rather than pooled unit wells, at least in western Washington County.
I haven’t gotten legal advice on new special provisions that might suggest. But, to me, something requiring the lessee to provide details on the allocation method they’ll be using before having the right to include your acreage in that kind of unit seems logical to at least put on the table for discussion.
We need the educational and entertainment value you always bring, so good luck and keep posting.
Acaval is Lavaca spelled backwards. (To keep the thread active).
Interesting observation! Yep, keep it going.