Is my operator telling me the truth?

Ownership and Title
1

My issue is what I really own. I have a 3/16 share of two or maybe more, producing wells in Sec. 1, 5N, 5W in Grady County, OK. One is the Mainka Ring C-1, #109090 and it has been producing for many years. The one in question is the England well and all I know is that it began producing 11/1/2018. I didn’t know where to go on the OCC website to get more info for it.

Complicating this is that my sister and I inherited this interest from our mother who died intestate and since she owned so little her estate was never probated. We did obtain, though, an affidavit of heirship and we sent that along with a copy of our mom’s death certificate to the operator, Red Rocks Oil and Gas. I want to sell my interest for several reasons and hope to get the title resolved. I know summary probate can do this and recently a Grady County attorney told me that’s done better by “quiet title” work, whatever that is.

OK, now to the problem. No DO’s or royalty checks from the England well nor for another, the Bogey 1-12X1H which also began producing 11/1/2018. The Red Rocks owner liaison told me it’s because of two reasons: 1. my title’s still not clear. This despite me having sent the affidavit of heirship and death cert. now TWICE by postal mail. They are “looking into it” , or trying to find what I sent them and they are to report back to me by this Friday.

  1. Here’s where RR may be trying to pull a fast one on me. They applied for a multiunit horizontal well, cause cd no. 201-805245, filed 7/3/2018, and they sent me a copy. It is for Sections 12 and 1, 5N, 5W. This document includes a photocopy of a map on Red Rocks letterhead. It shows a vertical line, N & S, running from Sec. 1 to the Section immediately below, Section 12. This line is marked to represent the then proposed Bogey well. OK, I see that confirms my ownership in that Bogey well.

But … in Section 12 there is an E-W horizontal line identified as the then proposed England well. So, if I have a legitimate interest in the Bogey well because it now goes from Section 1 (the original interest property as inherited) into Section 12, doesn’t that extend to the England well also in Section 12? (All of England is solely in Section 12.) Or, does a multiunit well expand your ownership property?

Red Rocks has also applied for a Bogey 2-12X1H and a Bogey 3-12X wells, both marked by vertical lines very close together and, like the above example, running N-S from Section 1 to Sec. 12. So I see another reason to believe that I have an interest in the England well, with all of it shown to be only in Section 12. This is found in interim order # 694448 dated 4/10/2019.

But still no DO’s on Bogeys 1, 2, or 3. To my knowledge no spud yet on Bogeys 2 and 3.

And last year RR did send me a royalty check for the original well, the Mainka Ring C-1 so I’m in their system about which I reminded the owner liaison.

She says all they need to confirm my title is the affidavit and the death certificate.

I hope I’ve told you all that’s needed to understand this and any help anyone can give would be mucho appreciated!

2

The England well goes east west in section 12 only. So if you own in section 1, you will not get paid on the England well as it has no perforations in section 1. First production on England was in November of 2018, so checks would not have started coming until June or so of 2019.

For the Bogey wells. Bogey 1-12X1H started production in November of 2018, so checks don’t come until at least six months after first production, but they have to wait for the splits on the well. The surface location was in section 12, so any perforations in section 12 only go to sec 12 owners. Any perforations in section 1 will be attributed to section 1 owners. The Bogey #1-12X1H turned out to be much shorter than it was planned, so not many feet of perforations.

image
image465×507 78.7 KB
The final order of the splits for the #1 well did not come out until November 8, 2019, so no Division Orders could go out until then. The allocation is 77.62% to section 12 and 22.38% to section 1. Since you are already in pay status for Mainka Ring C-1, you should be in pay status for the new well. The equation for the decimal amount will be:

net acres/actual spacing acres x royalty x % perforations in your section.

Section 1 is not a regular 640 acres, so the actual spacing acres will be slightly less than 640. The adjustments are made due to the curvature of the earth. Here is a map of the section.

image
image400×396 11.8 KB

Neither Bogey 2-12X1H or Bogey 3-12X1HS have been spudded yet.

Bottom line is that you should get a Division Order in a few weeks for the Bogey #1. They were waiting on the survey of the well so they could determine the splits between section 12 and section 1. A multi-unit well does not extend your mineral ownership as that would take away from other folks. You only get paid on the mineral acres you have in the sections you own according to the percent of the perforations in your section. If they choose to drill the #2 and #3 wells, they will hopefully go farther into section 1 and you will be paid a higher percentage in those wells. You can request that they pay interest on the late payment of the well. Go ahead and ask for the 12% since you already sent the documentation and they already have you in pay status for the Mainka well. Can’t hurt to try. Send by certified mail return receipt so you have documentation.

1 Like
3

I prefer to use probate to clear title in most cases. You are correct, a summary probate is probably the best option.

4

Thanks for replying, Richard. I’d replied earlier but it didn’t seem to go through but if it did then this is a duplicate reply. Anyway, what would be the reason that summary probate would be better than the “clear title work” the Grady County attorney said would be a beter approach?

5

Thank you Martha, for your quick and very helpful reply. A few lesser questions: I try to keep informed about the Bogey wells from what I can glean from the OCC website. To see when the operator may spud Bogey 2 and 3, is there any better place to go other than the Intent to Drill and Well Completion reports on the Oil and Gas Data files?

Also, when an operator gets the OK to spud, do they have a time limit to exercise that right?

6

There is no OK to spud. Only an intent to drill that is usually granted for 1 years time. The operator can choose to spud when they want, as long as it is in that time frame.

7

You might find the reply from tim_dowd at this post helpful.

8

The OCC well records files will show the spud date on form 1001A. Test