My wife and I own mineral interests in a lease in Glasscock Co, TX. The lease I’m discussing is held by Occidental Petroleum (OXY.) There are 5 well bores in the lease; one is capped; they have been paying on the other 4, but very little production has been reported for several years, and payment is sporadic.
Recently, we received a letter from an Owl Operating company located out of Midland, TX. They claim to be the successor operator of these wells, and have sent division orders to owners so they can pay us for production. We have contacted them, and they made it clear that OXY retains the lease; they are just taking over the operating of the wells. We have not been contacted about this by OXY.
We have a friend who also holds interest in the same wells. He contacted OXY, and they claim to not know about Owl Operating. Further, they could not answer his questions about why their own revenue statements show payment on the well that is capped, but does not report payment on one of the operating wells. The GIS viewer on the TX RRC confirms that the well reported by Owl Operating as being capped, is capped, and not producing. So, unless the info appearing on the GIS viewer is inaccurate, then Owl Operating seems to have the facts straight about which well is operating; OXY does not.
This is all very curious to us and we would like to hear from anyone who has had a similar such experience, being contacted by a successor operator who is reportedly unknown to the lease holder. Also, has anyone heard of Owl Operating? What is your experience with them?
I went to Owl Operating website and all links page can not be found. I also tapped the address to show map and it is a bar and grill. I don’t believe this is a legitimate company.
There is an OWL OPS LLC (operator # 100332) which is listed as operator of 8 wells in Glasscock County, 4 of which are called Hoelscher. Looking at the RRC documents for Hoelscher wells, Oxy filed a P-4 transferring operations to OWL OPS LLC effective October 1, 2024. You can get Midland address & phone # & officers names from operator list on RRC. The production reports for RRC lease 08-42763 lists OWL OPS LLC. All wells together are producing over 300 bbl / month. It would be easier to help if you posted the well name(s) and RRC lease #.
@TennisDaze , thank you for the information you’ve shared. Just now seeing your response, today. I had also sent an email to OXY about this matter, and received a call earlier today. The man I spoke with, from the land office, confirmed that OWL Operating took over the lease assignment on these wells, Hoelscher wells, in October 2024. He wasn’t sure if OXY retains the lease, though he said he’d get back with us about this. OWL Operating said they are just operating the well; that they don’t have the lease. He answered my other questions about the revenue statement also. So for now, we’re good to go. Still don’t understand how the Customer Relations staff couldn’t answer this question, but as long as we have an answer now, that’s all we need.
I have been on the TX RRC site before, but don’t know how to access the information you shared here. From the home page, what menu heading is it found under? I appreciate your help on this and your accurate information.
For most companies, customer relations is only for basic questions. This is a reason to send a detailed email so that your question is automatically sent up to the next level. TX RRC website - select Queries (online research). This opens a list for lots of data. The Organization P-5 query will let you search of an operator by name. I used Owl as it is often easier to search at the basic level. In Wellbore Query, you can use the operator # and select a county to see all the wells that it operates in that county (not a long list in this case). Or you can use the well RC lease number or API number to search. Look under permits for a well name and county. If you have the API, then search under completions for data. There is a wealth of information there if you take the time to search.
Again, thank you for your help. I know how to find the wells in which I have interest on the GIS viewer, but never have had much luck with other queries. I’ll try again, with Queries. There was a time when Clint Lyles posted updates on this forum for permits that had been filed. When he stopped that, I tried to find them myself but couldn’t figure out how to pull them up. It’s not really necessary that I know this, it’s more just my curiosity.