Quite a shock today, got a copy of a "request to comingle " sent to New Mexico for approval. This is for n2, ne4 of sec 18, ts25 south, range 36E. I cannot see any reason to object to the comingle, but what stood out to me was the 240 co owners all had 25% royalty and myself and 5 or 6 others only had 20%. I am guessing that the others negotiated for a higher percentage, and I was so dumb I did not know it was even negotiable! Since I am doing this for my daughters interests, I feel really bad about this. Is there any way to correct this 20% to 25% like almost everybody else has?
To be honest, probably no recourse at this time. You could always ask, but don’t get your hopes up. A contract signed is usually a contract signed. And don’t beat yourself up about it. You can only make decisions based upon what you knew at the time. We hopefully get wiser with time.
I think what hurts most is my pride! To think that out of 240 people, only I and a couple more people were so dumb! The owner of the surface however was also dumb as I. I would suppose that others dragged their feet until they were offered 25%, or made various counteroffers, and the owner just made it all 25%. What a poor way to run a business. For others reading: NEVER accept the lease amount offered.
Don- had it been a dry hole you would look brilliant. Woulda, coulda, shouda. What do they say about hindsight? And here’s another one: comparison is the root of all disappointment.
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Just to think that I will continue to suffer from this mistake for the rest of my life, then my kids will suffer, is enough to make a grown man, a certified tightwad, CRY!
Maybe your priorities are in the wrong places. Just sayin! Maybe you should be thankful for what you have and millions of others don’t.
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You’ve got 12 wells going across your property. I think you’re going to be ok.
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I wouldn’t exactly call receiving a 20% royalty suffering…
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You are all very correct of course, but I am a “Depression Baby” and it is in my DNA to never let a penny lie when you can pick it up 
I know exactly how you feel. In my case, years ago I lost 75% of my royalties by not having a good attorney read a division order. I just signed it. Consequently, I trust no one connected to the oil industry. Good luck.
Hey Don, maybe try looking at it like my cousin and I do. This is free money. We didn’t do anything to get it. We have a lot to learn about negotiations and personally I’m not sure I’ll ever get another chance to try to negotiate but we’re still getting royalties for something we didn’t do. Free money.
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I should have known better, my initiation into this world of oil and gas, was finding out when my wife’s father died her sister kept receiving the checks, cashing them, and keeping the money for TWENTY SIX YEARS!!! The royalty checks were being sent to a 120 year old person and were being cashed by someone else. The operating company is NOT your friend or trustworthy organization. Will I ever learn?
That is not the fault of the oil company. It is the fault of the family members involved, and perhaps the bank which allowed a third party to cash the checks. Oil companies have many thousands of royalty owners, due in part to the increasingly smaller fractional mineral interests as minerals pass through the generations. It takes manpower to simply keep up with address changes and transfers ;to new owners who notify the oil company. Financial resources are limited and oil companies need to spend wisely to keep leasing, drilling and operating. The burden and responsibilities of property ownership, as so many things in life, are on the owner. You should take pride in what young-have accomplished for your daughter.
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I agree, and as usual you are 100% correct - except for computers and algorithms that would not cost them ANY labor or cost, and would probably save them some. I will give a non-fiction novel for those so inclined to listen. The scam pulled on me was first, the family connection. I was enlisted to go with my wifes’ father to all the wells, since he suspected someone was turning off the pumps and then stealing his oil! I had never ever seen an oil well it did not take me long to determine they were going dry and shut off because of that. There was no oil to steal! Therefore I incorrectly assumed that there were in fact no minerals left during that marriage, she died and my daughter even was executor of her estate. NO reason to investigate or question that. Now fast forward 26 years and the culprit had moved to Florida and back to New Mexico leaving a forwarding address for her mail (and nice oil royalties checks) An algorithm in the Florida Post Office noticed the do not forward on the envelope and wanted a statement from the long dead “owner”. None was produced of course and the computer automatically checked the Social Security Death Index and found he had been dead for decades! Computer quickly found me looking for information since I have a large internet presence! I gave them the information, they sent me my share of the checks! Along with that check was the listing of several of the wells and their owners of course, with some detective work I then found a total of 9 mineral interests and furnished each of them the packet of proof of ownership. When my credit card company can balk at my wife buying a bottle wine for a friend, when we don’t drink wine you can see the easy ways the oil company can make checks and balances without using any manpower, even to produce the letter and send it out. Maybe something as simple as the monthly checks not having been delivered or cashed for years in the above case might make one suspicious, it sure would make a computer suspicious if programmed. I suppose there is reluctance to be honest when they can do nothing and keep the revenue. I know they could do better and I also know that they are not. You are right about the huge numbers of owner portions, I was flabbergasted to recently find that a very small 1/4 section mineral interest of ours was being shared with no less than 240 co owners! Awesome accounting job for sure!
I worked in the oilfield, in different capacities, for 23 years.
For 11 of those years in close contact with the operators as a welder
and 3 as a crude hauler. My grandfather was a Geophysicist. He
discovered an oilfield in Fort Bend county and several wells in Fayette
county. He was taken to the cleaners by his partner.
I have seen more under-handed things than a lot of people.
But, I’m sure, not as much as most. It has nothing to do with being
stupid and everything to do with being inquisitive and vigilant.
The fault was your daughter’s as executor of the estate. Texas law requires that one of the duties of the executor is to prepare and file a deed to the beneficiaries for any real estate or mineral interests, even if the mineral interests are not producing. Just because the mineral interests are not producing now does not mean they won’t in the future. In addition, as someone pointed out, it is the law that each person is responsible for the title to their mineral interests. It is not the responsibility of the oil company. It’s not a case of simply having software that checks deaths. They would need to check deaths in the entire planet (not all owners live in the US), have operators of the software, do maintenance, do updates. Not as simple as turning on a computer and setting it in the corner and let it run. In addition, the oil company does not “keep” the revenue in situations like this. The revenue goes into a suspense fund and after 6 years must be escheated to the Texas Comptroller.
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Your points are quite worth understanding. In further understanding, my daughters mother NEVER HAD any mineral interests! She was in a nursing home and died before this all came to light, and checks of her fathers probate did not mention any mineral rights either, I checked myself. There have been others on this forum that have had some of the identical situations. Granted they are few that actually fell between the cracks like this. In a coherent close knit family, this would have never happened. The thing that DID happen is the operator had a “Do Not Forward” on the mailed checks that broke this case open.
"I suppose there is reluctance to be honest when they can do nothing and keep the revenue. I know they could do better and I also know that they are not. "
Oil companies don’t get to “keep” royalties that are not claimed. If they notice something strange like checks getting returned, they place the account in suspense until the rightful owner reaches out and provides the right ownership verification. Once again, it’s the mineral owner and their heirs that have the responsibility of keeping track of their own interests, not the operator. It’s always easy to spend someone else’s money and tell them to implement a lot of money to track something that isn’t even their responsibility.
Your only recourse is favored nations clause in your lease which i assume you did not know to add. Royalties can range for variety of reasons. They may have got 25% because they had a much larger tract compared to yours. Larger tracts have more leverage usually. Also you may have received higher bonus than them to offset the RI. If your tract is small and it’s a good operator you could say your were confused but honestly it’s not their issue.
I’ve checked the unclaimed property in every state that my family has lived. Also a number of Oil & Gas producing states. In the ten years after my dad died I claimed a number of checks. He had a number of working interests. There were a number of wells that he chose know to rework or drill drill that 7th well on the lease. The first 6 wells were dead, the 7th hadn’t paid out. It paid out, when oil hit 145. The money was then send to the state years later. Just found a couple hundred this year. The reall tough one is finding out of balance gas wells in Okla.