M. McMorries,
Regarding the 1280 A units, have you seen anything on SB 78 or HB 2264? I think they are both related to unit spacing. I know SB 201 (anderson) is dead, but haven’t seen anything on the others.
2014 is the year of the horse, so it means a wild ride year, wonder if it’s in the market or oil.
My husband inherited rights in S6 and Sunoco can’t seem to find the lease ( except one from 1935). Oil company said these leases are lifetime leases and go on until depleted. He doesn’t know his percentage but receives a check each month. Where to go for info?
The check has 3 pages but I will look. Logan county is S6 15N 4W. They were owned by McCain’s and Peterson’s
Devon is flowing back 3 wells on my property 18N-3W-4, six miles west of Mulhall. After looking at the set up I am going to file a complaint with the corporation commission. Devon is metering these wells with mag meters off the water and oil outlets from the seperators. The seperators are not large enough to allow enough residence time for the oil and water to separate, and they are not injecting emulsion breakers. So the metering is vastly inacccurate, and they are co-mingling the oil in common tanks. They are not dedicating tanks to each well. After over 30 years in the business, I can say without reservation, that mineral owners on multi well locations are being ripped off thousands of bbls of oil, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars with these type set ups. I have called Devon, but have not received a call back. I will let the group know what the response is. I would suggest that mineral owners get together and demand proving meters on each well, as well as dedicated tanks for each well. I have a number for a lynn Johnson with Devon, 405 332 7747. I would suggest we all call him and demand accurate metering of our wells.
Pooling question… Is it true that an oil company only needs to have 1 mineral acre leased to pool a section? Even if another oil company has a majority of the leases on that section.
Weston, I think they could TRY with one acre. I think one or more of the companies who have more acreage would protest.
Virginia and M Barnes, Canada had similar co-mingling problems with shale formations and non-shale formations, so ERCB enforced temporary co-mingling pool codes for 1st time production regardless of process used and all future wells in same pool have to meet same 1st time requirements. After required production data has been reported all wells and pools are reviewed periodically to ensure adherence to the requirements then, ERCB allows co-mingling temporary status to be changed.
I can see your concern if it is a lateral too close to the other zone. When you get to the very edges of a basin where both zones are thin, it can be difficult to steer into one and not stray into the other so they allow the co-mingling. I hope they get it straightened out for you.
M Barnes, the two, Superior & Sunoco look like they are on the 4 different ones in Oklahoma County. I don’t think he is receiving one from Logan county. In the will it says 60 mineral acres in S6 T15N R4w.Thank you for the help. Just when I seem to make headway I hit a roadblock like this. Oil company has not been very helpful at clearing up the info. I guess we will have to make trips to the county seat.
Robert, I know for certain that Devon is co-mingling the Miss Lime and Woodford zones in the common well bore in our area, so they don’t have separate measurement of production from each zone which further complicates co-mingling the oil in tanks and illegal metering. I have been emailing OCC attorney Jim Hamilton trying to come up to speed on the legality of these issues and you may want to email him too, but Jim and I are in disagreement, because he thinks the OCC is doing a real good job of protecting us mineral owners and I don’t. [email protected] Also, I will call someone who checks meters. Thank you so much for your invaluable knowledge!
Virginia, I’ve always told my kids that the O/G biz is like riding a wild pony…sometimes you are in control, but most times you are not.
Martha M: Unless they did a “smart completion” on the Miss and Wdfd at the time of completion, they cannot meter them separately because the flow of oil and gas is mixed in the well bore from day one. A “smart completion” is a different tubing string and completion packer for each zone. Like two straws lying next to each other in a bigger straw. If they perfed them and opened them up at the same time in the same liner (co-mingled), no way to tell them apart. Sorry, but that is what co-mingled means and it is done in thousands of wells around the world. You cannot undo it unless you go in and plug off one zone, usually the lower one. The idea is to get production from both zones when it would be uneconomic to put liners to each one-therfore no production at all. . When a company has “Co-mingled” on the permit, that is what they plan to do. If it is approved, then it is not illegal.
On the issue of different wells on the same meter, then I would definitely consider fighting that one. In my opinion, each well needs its own meter, but you may get pushback. Good luck on that.
Virginia, Yes, SB 78 is Horizontal Well Development Act; targeted reservoirs; common source of supply; Corporation Commission to take certain actions to protect rights of owners. SB 968 is requirements for filing legal actions and HB 1909 is updating reference to common source of supply/spacing units. I’ll get back to you with my research findings.
M Barnes, One of the well laterals in question is a 150’ offset which is not to close for the Woodford, but it is to close for the Miss Lime, so OCC should not have allowed co-mingling because the lower zone was not plugged off.
I was just wondering if some of these oil companies might be hauling our ashes on the way to market, bit then it confuses me as to who they sell the stuff to when we ain’t looking? If I knew what to complain about, I would, if I could figure out who to complain to who isn’t on the inside take. I thought Chris Christy was a honest politician, too.
Yes. sure sounds like we mineral owners need to file appeals and complaints wherever we can, I will indeed consider filing with my County 4-H Club President, the local Glee club Manager, and the NAACP Director and see if this does any good. Good luck. Maygbe even a letter to Chelsea Clinton.
Linda P, friend me and I can help you get started on sorting it out where we won’t bug everyone else. See the Friends button at the top of the page.
Martha B
Correction HB 2264 is updating HB 1909 reference to common source of supply/spacing units.
M McMorries,
They have been co-mingling oil for years out of one well and it’s not illegal. Years ago when a V well produced out of 3 hc/sand it all went into one tank. The only things it could changed is the oil gravity . Now if it’s oil from 3 different wells, that should be going into different meter & tanks as it could have different mineral owners.
Weston,
In order to pool a company would have to have a large % of the leases, I think it’s 63% or close to that. Lets say, it’s spaced on 640A, the company would need a little over 400 A. But, if another company leased 160 of that section, they could be forced to pool or if the company that had the 160 wanted to drill a H well, they would work with the larger lease owner. Oil companies don’t think in small acres, only mineral owners think in Acres.
The accuracy of the meters came up a long time ago after talking to an ex pumper of devon wells. I asked specifically about the meters and the tanks and he told me that they have to “adjust” their allocations from each well because the oil meters are metering gas and water as well as oil, and the tank volumes are not adding up to the bbls of oil registered on the meters. The allocations are then adjusted down to the volumes sold out of the tanks. He told me “somebody is getting screwed,” on the multi well pads. I dont think it is too much to ask for dedicated tanks for each well, so that the volumes of oil can be verified. Once the oil leaves the meter, it is co mingled in the tanks and cannot be then verified. Devon is performing mal-practice in my opinion, and owes the mineral owners an accurate way to prove their meters. I don’t want a contract pumper to adjust down my oil production because one of the other meters on another well is inaccurate. I would again suggest that mineral owners get together and demand accuracy and a way to prove the allocation of their oil and gas. This is common practice in the industry to “prove” meters. Devon called me this afternoon and told me that dedicated oil tanks and proving of meters was “not going to happen.” I am going to wait until there is a few thousand bbls of oil produced, and then raise this issue with devon again. The accuracy of the meters will be easy to examine. The accumulated volumes will be recorded by the ROCs on each well, and if the sales of oil don’t equal the oil metered, then the meter is inaccurate. I am sure after calibrating thousands of transmitters over my career, that the meter error will be substantial. Again, it is my opinion that Devon is not practicing good engineering practices and not protecting the interests of the mineral owners. Any one that has a way to approach Devon as a group, or any ideas of how to best safeguard our interests in this matter please feel free to offer suggestions.