Received a letter from Dawson geophysical company. They’re requesting to do 3-D seismic survey And geophysical exploratio . They requesting a permission through Permit . But there is no end date on the request in fact it says it survives any lease sale trade or conveyance of property described above. Can any one shed light on situation. There is no letter, check or other items sent , but this permit and return envelope
This is a normal request for mineral owners. The mineral interest is dominant over the surface interest, so they must get permission from at least one mineral owner to proceed. Mineral owners do not usually get any payment for the seismic shoot (at least I haven’t, maybe others have). Surface owners may get a small amount for temporary damages to crops. (I got a nice road around my pond in exchange for letting them shoot across one of my properties). As a mineral owner, I usually sign giving them permission as I would like my minerals to be developed someday. There is a chance that they would find something that might be negative like a pinchout, or a fault, but that is the risk we take. In my mind, the positives outweigh the negatives.
Thanks for the input. Is it normal for them to leave the term open ended to remain in force despite , leave, death, etc.
Yes, as they may have to come back and fill in holes or reshoot an area if the data is not as high quality as they wish.
Rodney - Dawson is one of the oldest and best seismic survey companies out there, so you should be in good hands. For the reasons M Barnes states, these companies always request an open ended permit to conduct their operations.
I prefer to limit the duration of the permit. I haven’t had a problem with these companies agreeing to a one year time limitation, which should give them enough time to determine the quality of their data and come back and fix any deficiencies. Good luck.