Buddy,
I'm not interested in selling at this time, just curious.
Thanks for your time,
Chuck
Looking for advice regarding the idea of leasing my 7 nma for $500 per acre with a 1/4% royalty to a O&G leasing Company or decling the lease and bonus to go it alone. I was told that a permit to drill was in the works with a start date sometime in the middle of the 2nd qtr of this year… I will take that with a grain of salt in this drilling business climate. I know a bird in the hand is worth several in the bush but $3,500 isn’t that much to pass on if there is a chance for a bigger payout. (if a successful well is made) I’m looking for comments on how this would work. Do I have any exposure to the drilling expenses and what about payout ect…
Robert
Nice to see some activity in the county. Would assume eastern part of county. Have seen some permits pulled for verticals pretty deep. I think Halcon leased for 1/4 and 1000 an acre or little above south of Bedias april of 2014? before they sold it to NGR. Pretty sure on names and dates. So would assume 1/4 is pretty nice and you could probably get a little more for bonus. If wellbore goes across your minerals you can become a working interest. But 7 acres ( unless undivided interest in a large tract) they can drill around you pretty easy if they want too. They really want to lease you. But beware if you are 7 surface acres and if they cannot come to agreement with you. They may just leave you out. Then I have seen 50 acres near me that back in the day did not get leased and now is locked out by surrounding leases.
I have 40 acres of surface only and there has been a couple of contracts sent to me to sign to allow them to do seismic testing on my farm. I have declined them because frankly it doesn't seem worth my time to consider and I have no idea what exactly they plan to do, I will not blindly sign any contract without full knowledge of what it is. So today I received a threatening letter from an attorney to try and get me to submit. Should I get an attorney? I am in northern Grimes County.
LAR.…are you currently leased with anybody? Also, since you don’t own the mineral rights to your property it could be they contacted the owners of the minerals beneath your property and they signed off on a seismic permit which trumps surface rights. If you don’t mind telling, who is the company wanting to do seismic and who for? It maybe the same folks I’m dealing with now.
The letter from the attorney in Bryan says, Vector Seismic and New Gulf Resources, LLC is the owner of an oil & gas lease covering my property...this is the first I have heard of the lease...
It also says, Agents of Nicholson Land Services is involved on behalf of Vector Seismic.
Dear LAR,
If it were me, I would ask to see a copy of either the mineral seismic permit or a copy of the oil and gas lease covering your property. All you are asking for is proof that they have the rights from any mineral owner to conduct seismic.
Here is the situation. If ANY mineral interest granted to New Gulf the right to conduct seismic, then you must allow them to enter your property. However, it is a great idea to have someone on your side to negotiate the surface permit.
What many people do NOT know is that the right of ingress and egress does not extend to improvements -- such as your roads.
Also, what many people do NOT know is that if you unlawfully prevent them from entering, you could be faced with a suit to pay for the seismic company to stack the crew. That generally runs around $7-10K per hour.
You answered your own question. If you ask if you should get an attorney, then your probably should get representation.
Just because you own surface only does not mean that they want to be bad guys and run you over. They do want to work with you. It is incredibly bad PR for them to do otherwise.
Best
Buddy Cotten
Buddy
You state "What many people do NOT know is that the right of ingress and egress does not extend to improvements -- such as your roads."
Follow up question does this apply to surface owner restricting the O&G company from using current road to access a pad site to drill? How much barging power does landowner only have in that regards? Especially if my current road is used to gain access to adjoining property to put a pad site on. Minerals under my land and NBR land is in same unit.
This is the letter just received from the attorney, the contract from Nicholson/Vector. Does it look in line and should I just sign it? I have a few issues with how they will be able to enter my tracts. I also have livestock on the land that can not be moved off. Some areas have no entrance and some only have a small 8' gate.
I also live in N Grimes and have signed a contract for seismic testing. I have a list of demands that are part of that contract. Like no explosive testing, only "thumper" trucks. My well is to be tested before and after testing, and if any damage occurs, will be repaired to my satisfaction (this well is only about 3 years old). If any of my livestock aborts any calves, I will be compensated. I have a lot of huisache, and in order to place their sensors, it will have to be cleared using a mulcher. They have access using one 16' gate, that has their lock added to mine. They have to give me 3 days notice before they can start testing. These are just a few of what was negotiated. I'm sure, even though lawyers have gotten involved, you still have room for negotiations.
Robert, did you negotiate with them directly or did you use someone on your behalf?
We negotiated direct with their representative. We went back and forth a few times before we could reach a happy medium. We figured we would have to sign sometime, so we might as well get what we could, since we were "driving" at the time.
Let me add this. Before we did sign the contract, I had a land lawyer from Bryan look over the "requests", just to see if he could add anything.
Update - Well I negotiated some additional terms and they were all accepted. I called the supervisor and he was gracious and we came to an agreement.
Mark
Do you have locations for grimes county? assume minerals only? Survey name and NMA would help
Can someone tell me what is going on at the Ruen #1 well? My mom said they moved a rig onto the property (near Cross, Texas) yesterday. I am in Friendswood and trying to find information for her. Thanks!
Deena
I have a place probably a mile as crow flies from there. Will see what kind of rig it is. Have not seen many permits pulled for the immediate area.
Abstract 266 Grimes County
Mark
From what I can tell A266 is near the NOV R&D center and main reason whey they wanted this area was because its an area void of commercially hydrocarbons. We fought them from moving a mile from my house and their presentation had a large triangle that had faults around and was almost as if it stopped the oil from getting into the triangle. That survey probably butts up against over 2000 acres that NOV bought in the last 2 years. LawRidge was the place and they own both sides of the hwy. They have a rig up but is only for R&D and the pad plat has I think 150 holes on it.