I have a lease with Noble which is set to expire in Feb 2015. If they do not drill I will be looking to lease to them or someone else. I have heard rumors of not only specifying the acres, time frame, etc. leased but also leasing by specific formation, zone, or depth. Does anyone have specific knowledge of this type of lease? and is it really being done??
Absolutely everything is on the table in an oil and gas deal. How much clout you have depends on your position in acreage. If you are the sole owner or own a big enough chunk of the unit, nothing will happen without your agreement. If your reasonable demands are not met, you have to be willing to walk away saying maybe next year, or 5-10 years from now. If you have half the unit acreage and the other half is already leased, the operator already has a large investment/ motivation to deal with you or their expenditure to that point is money down a rat hole. Not to say that the operator will not try absolutely everything they can to get control of your acres as cheaply as possible and at the first sign of tactics I don't appreciate I would stop talking to them, they really don't like that.
An oil company that can't acquire new acreage to drill days are numbered. You could be force pooled in Colorado, but you would still receive a state mandated royalty until your portion of the well were paid for and a penalty recovered. Ask yourself this, If force pooling was a good deal for the operator, why doesn't the operator lease just enough and force pool the rest?
When you think that through, you will know where your clout in the negotiations comes from.
Tim, please email me [email protected]. I help royalty owners all the time as NARO Rockies President.