I inherited mineral rights and receive royalties for a number of locations. How do I know if any of these were force pooled and if so what does the paperwork look like if different from a lease or division order. I have many old leases and new DO’s but don’t know if any of the old stuff was force pooled.
Jeff, you can start at this website for the OCC Case Processing Online. Forced Pooling Orders are issued by the OCC, so they will look nothing like an OGL or DO. If you get very lucky, you can email the purchaser and ask if the have information that links your interest to a forced pooling. Most of this will be detective work.
The division order comes after a successful well is completed under a lease or a pooling order. It is fairly challenging to look up respondents names for older pooling orders unless you have a subscription to a vendor software. Start with the Division Order department at your operators and contact them first to ask if you are under an order or a lease. If under an order, ask them what the order number is so you can look up the case and read it at the OCC. Ask the DO analyst what your net acres and royalty are. Be ready with the owner number on the DO and the name under which it was addressed. It will help them look it up quicker.
A back door to finding the order number is to go to the OCC well records site and look up the completion report for the wells. The newer ones have the pooling order on them, but older ones will not.