How long after completing and fracking before they run a test on any sort of production?
I received a letter from BlueStarLandServices, Norman, OK., today that cites my mineral interest in 2-20N-4W and I was not aware of my interest in the property. I need to go to the Garfield County Courthouse and check this out. That’s not the unusual thing about this letter though.
"Devon respectfully requests that you select one of the following options regarding your interest. 1. Participate with your interest by paying your proportionate share of costs. 2. Lease your interest for $400.00 per acre for a three-year term reserving an 18.75% royalty.
I’ve never received a letter with a choice of leasing my interest or paying my share of drilling/production costs.
Has anyone else received this type of letter before?
It’s not unusual that I have heard from a Land-man concerning a property that I did not know that I had an interest in; that’s happened three times, this one included, in the last 2 1/2 or 3 years.
Thanks for all the advice I have been reading about for some time now on this site.
Martha McMorries, I’m a little out of my depth as you may have surmised. I have signed two leases; one for $450.00 per acre bonus, and 3/16 (I can’t find the location right now, but it’s South of Covington, and a little East.), and the other recently for $850.00 per acre bonus and 3/16 (15-21N-4W). I would suppose that I have a non-participating interest? I don’t believe that there was anything mentioned about the sharing of costs, and as I said earlier, I don’t have that many acres overall. There are four of us involved in each of these signings, all heirs from brothers originally.
Robert Gholston, Good news is that is seems you have just leased your minerals for a bonus $ per acre and you will receive production payments based on a 3/16th royalty interest, so you should be alright. I just received a letter from Nichols Energy saying they are leasing for Devon, but the working interest costs are set forth on letterhead that is not Devon’s official letterhead and it is not signed by any Devon representative. Now, I used to work for Chesapeake, so I know what Devon’s letterhead should look like. I’m hopping mad that Devon has allowed these types of situations to occur. If you ever need help with understanding anything post your questions and some others on this forum and or I will try to help.
Mr. Gholston, did they send you the entire lease form or are they just doing the sleazy landman thing of trying to get you to commit to a lease at $400 per acre and 18.75% without telling you the rest of the terms or allowing you to insert protective clauses beneficial to you?
Mr. Gholston, that’s about what I expected. I think it’s a fishing expedition, while your saying you will lease for X amount with no other terms discussed in my opinion does not create a binding contract, it’s part of the negotiation strategy, the disgusting part.
I have disdain for the low ballers also. I always try to get a competitive offer and when the operator tells me they will match any offer, I tell them they will better any competitive offer by a considerable margin or they will not even be considered as a lessee. Just because they are the operator, does not mean they should get special consideration, certainly not if they employ people who send out letters such as the one you received. It shows they have no class what so ever. If you can’t get a competitive offer, I’d wait for the pooling.
Mr. Kennedy, Thanks for the input. That’s kind of what I thought, but the way the letter was worded, you would think that this was it, and I had no options. I’ll wait and see what else might be in the works. I don’t have many acres, so I need to make the most of it.
I always thought it odd that I seem to be unable to do any kind of search to see if I might be a party to any other mineral interests in Oklahoma, but on the other hand, I start receiving letters every so often about small parcels of land I supposedly have an interest in.
By the way, it’s Bob.
Robert Gholston, Reserving a Royalty Interest and a Working Interest are 2 totally different types of interests. When you reserve a royalty interest you are reserving a non participating interest that does not share in the drilling and completion costs and/or any costs associated with the Joint Operating Agreement and this reserved royalty interest will have no rights to leasing and bonus payments and there are some other nasty ramifications also. A Working Interest Owner has to sign a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) agreeing to pay their percentage of costs which should be detailed out in a JOA on the operating company’s official letterhead. I have participated with a working interest where I received a letter giving me the option of leasing for a bonus $ per acre with a 1/8, 1/5th , 3/16th or 1/4th royalty interest or the option of participating in the drilling and completion of the well with my full percentage or partial percentage of the well according to my number of mineral acres and I signed a JOA agreeing to pay my fair share of costs. However, I have never been presented with the option to reserve a non participating royalty interest that has been calculated according to the number of mineral acres I owned.
Martha, Thank you.
r w ; They didn’t send the whole thing. They didn’t actually send me much more than that. But the wording seemed to indicate that these were the only two choices I had in the matter. To complicate things, I stopped in at the Garfield County Courthouse to look at the location, and it appears that it is in Payne County, and it abuts where my my mineral interests are. (Going for a horizontal?) At least that is what the woman in the records section at the Courthouse told me.
I don’t like dealing with these folks; I had several letters not too long ago from landmen wanting me to lease mineral rights to them on another property, starting at $300.00 an acre. I then started getting letters from a lawyer, David E. Pepper, talking about pooling on 15-21N-4W, and then I got increasing numbers of letters and the offers increased to $450.00. I told one guy to send me the lease agreement and I would look at it. Before his material arrived, I got an offer for $850.00 an acre, and I signed with them. The guy who was going to send me the lease agreement for $450.00, (which I still had not received after 1 1/2 weeks) was fuming at me when I called him and told him not to bother. He ranted and called me immoral. I told him to look in a mirror for low-balling me.
As you can tell I am just not good at this waiting game and it is a long time until the Corporation Commission date of June 10 to determine how to pay, if they do, on a two section horizontal well.
I saw where someone on Logan county and mentioned that they thought they had stopped fracking in Logan County, and got worried about Garfield County. ha. As far as I know, I think they might still be fracking Section 27, 21N, 3W. That would be my luck…That or a storm will blow the well away…
Robert Gholston, I received the same letter today, from Blue Star with a similar offer for my rights in S2-20N-4W, Garfield county.
Oh and buy the way, don’t settle for less than 800 for south end of range 8now. I don’t see how they will ever get spacings changed, other producing wells agreed to, and drilled in 3 years. They better get some rigs reserved because where they are drilling I hear it is hard to get rigs…
Martha, according to their letter, yes.
M.D. If you lease or are pooled they have six months from date of first sale to start paying you or they owe you 12% interest .
I may have heard them all managing the family trust for 25 yrs., but a current one is: “We haven’t paid anything higher in your area.”, but the “we” is the Land Service not the company they are leasing for.
Is Blue Star leasing for Devon?
You might consider asking for the highest bonus you can get with 1/4 royalty. Third party lessee’s will give you 3 yr/$ bonus per acre/1/4. Almost all my family’s leases have been 1/4. If you are not familiar with lease clauses get an O/G attorney to look over the lease.
I had an agent tell me today that if you get pooled, you don’t start getting paid until the well is paid for. I told him that is very interesting…pay me more and I will not worry!