Once forced pooling paperwork is received by mineral rights owner, can a lease still be signed?
I ask this because my mother was contacted by Blue Star Land Services (representing Devon Energy) to see if she was interested in leasing her mineral rights. Mom returned the letter with her signature next to the block indicating she wanted them to send her the lease.
It has been approximately 6 weeks since Mom requested the lease, however, the lease was never sent to Mom. Instead, now she has received forced pooling paperwork. In addition, she has received a letter from a different company, Randall G. Raulston, Inc., asking if she is interested in leasing her mineral rights to them for $275/acre, 3 yr. term, 3/16 royalty. My assumption is that Raulston is contacting all those who are on the forced pooling list and is trying to get leases with them.
My questions are:
1. Now that forced pooling is taking place, can Mom still sign a lease? Is leasing a better option rather than being force pooled?
2. If leasing is still an option, should she go with the original offer from Blue Star Land Services (Devon Energy) which offered $200/acre, 3 yr. term, 3/16 royalty, assuming they want to lease with her?
3. I'm unable to find out anything about the Raulston company and have no idea if they are a reputable company, so don't know if we should consider leasing with them. Anyone know anything about Raulston? I've heard that some companies that try to get leases with those that are force pooled might not be reputable.
Mom (97 yrs. old) and her children who are helping with this matter live in the state of Washington, and we are not knowledgable about these matters, so any help is appreciated.
1. Yes your mom can still sign a lease. Leasing is a better option if the terms of the Lease will be better than the terms of the Pooling Order. What are the terms of the Application to pool.
2. Devon is missing the boat, if they wanted to Lease, they should have sent her a lease. She should contact them and ask where the Lease is because she has received a better offer and ask Devon if they would like to beat it.
3. Don't know anything about Raulston. Even if they are not reputable, their money spends just as well as Devon's money.
There are certain terms you want in the lease and other posters all over this board have covered that issue better than I can in a short space.
Was your mothers name listed on pooling order? If so was on the list of those with addresses or those with out addresses? I would contact the attorney the sent you the pooling order. Let them know of the situation. She should sign a lease.
Yes, my mother's name is listed (3 times) and all of the names are with addresses. What is the significance of the addressess or lack therof??
Thank you Barry.
Barry K Pagel said:
Was your mothers name listed on pooling order? If so was on the list of those with addresses or those with out addresses? I would contact the attorney the sent you the pooling order. Let them know of the situation. She should sign a lease.
If they have addresses then all of those should get lease agreements to sign. Have you talked with the landman?
Those without addresses they can't find and put them in the pooling order. They can do the same with those that don't sign a lease. It's harder to get your money then. The two different companies could be vying for the same area or the section is set up so many wells per a set number of acers. Do you know how many acers she has?
Does your mother know what she wants to do with this mineral interest when she is longer with us?
She may want to deed them to the kids and reserve a Life Estate now rather than deal with a probate later.
A Payable on Death deed works as well.
Although a probate will not be required by the gas company immediately, eventually, someday, her interest will have to be probated before any of the kids would have marketable title.
Mom wants her 3 children to have the mineral rights. However, we cannot find any paperwork that shows Mom and Dad owned mineral rights for these 11 acres. Would the landman have proof of ownership (title??)? If we had proof of ownership, then I would think that we could do a Quit Claim Deed transferring her interest to us, or, as you said, Payable on Death Deed.
It sure would be nice to get all of this cleared up before Mom passes.
Matthew said:
Does your mother know what she wants to do with this mineral interest when she is longer with us?
She may want to deed them to the kids and reserve a Life Estate now rather than deal with a probate later.
A Payable on Death deed works as well.
Although a probate will not be required by the gas company immediately, eventually, someday, her interest will have to be probated before any of the kids would have marketable title.
My brother has left a message for the landman to call, but instead the landman had his assistant return the call and she couldn't answer the questions and said she would have him call my brother. However, no call yet.
Mom has only 11.05 acres. From what my 2 brothers say (they have seen this property), this is a very narrow stip of land and a well couldn't be put here.
Barry K Pagel said:
If they have addresses then all of those should get lease agreements to sign. Have you talked with the landman?
Those without addresses they can't find and put them in the pooling order. They can do the same with those that don't sign a lease. It's harder to get your money then. The two different companies could be vying for the same area or the section is set up so many wells per a set number of acers. Do you know how many acers she has?
Actually the well can be drilled anywhere within the usually 640 acre section. Sometimes it can be different, but your 11 acre ownership will apply to any well within your section.
Your mom if she wants to be done with messing with it should deed the property to the 3 kids now. Assuming your mother still has capacity to deed.
They could be drilling on 40 acre plots. It just depends on how the section is set up for drilling. A section that we have mineral rights in is set up for 1 well for 640 acres. It's going to be a horizontal well. But many sections allow a well for every 40 acres or less. How ever the section is set up they have to lease all areas with in the drill section.