If member of a pool, can you be left out of a new lease from the pool?

General Mineral Rights Discussion
1

I leased minerals in 2007 and had been receiving gas royalties from four wells. in late 2018 two of the wells were plugged back and recompleted into oil wells. During the pandemic times, accounting for the two remaining gas wells disappeared from my revenue statements. I just checked the RRC website and see that there’s significant production from these two gas wells, but I’m not receiving any royalty. Something I notice is that production on RRC is reported under new lease numbers beginning in 2020. Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but I thought all members of a pool shared the revenue based upon their ownership percentage…??? Can a pool member be left out of new leases?

FWIW, for the past five years my gut has been telling me something is fishy, and the voices of my grandparents have been haunting me: “Ain’t nothin’ more crooked than a Texas oilman.” They bought the property in 1910 and thus had plenty of experience to speak from. So, I’m also wondering if there’s anyone doing quick scans for issues between revenue statements and RRC data?

2

There are unfortunately a lot of ‘it depends’ in your question. If your lease (and ownership) is limited to certain depths and they drill within a named pooled unit, but in the depths that you do not own in, then you will not receive royalties on the deeper wells. You need to look at what you own, what you leased, where are the new wells, etc. And there is no such thing as a ‘quick scan’ of revenue statements vs. TXRRC. Factors include ownership, lease provisions, what is filed with the county, etc. This community has a wealth of knowledge as you start untangling what you are really dealing with.