Hello,
Did Devon lease others in that area?
wcm
Hello All,
Seems to have gotten very quiet here. What happened? Did Devon lots of acres on 1372, near the gas plant? Has anyone gotten an offer for a top lease?
wcm
We got a lease, I guess it is a lease, that has no numbers, nothing. They want to drill horizontal where they have previously only gone vertical. There is no mention of a bonus or anything. It is from Devon. Is this normal? Good grief! All of this is so complicated! : ) Have a great weekend everyone!
Vicki
Thank you, Martin. The last guy said that unless everyone they were leasing with were together, there were no negotiation available. Is that true?
Thanks! Vicki
We as landowners got together in our area near madison and leon county line and are currently working out our leases. Its not so much the amount paid to you to lease your land as it is all of the other issues, royalty, depth clause, extensions, pooling provisions.
It is and is not true, as landowners you can try to negotiate anything, however your strength in negotiating is directly related to how much land you have under your control individually or as a group
Have you tried to organize your neighbors?
Hello,
I inherited property in 1976. It was leased at the time. I went through the lease process for the first time in 1980. I have done this several times. ALL things are negociable.
Do your homework. If they need your small ten acre tract to tie to larger tracts togather, they need you and will give you things they would not otherwise. They NEED your acres, or the multimillion dollar project wont happen.
Ask. Negociate. Give something to get something. If they want to drill on your acres, and the other acres that will be in the pool are further from pipelines and roads, use that to your advantage.
Also remember, if you ask for a larger royalty interest, they may agree to it, and sign a lease. Then if they get more acres at a lower royalty interest, they may pool those acres, and leave you out of the pool. I have seen it.
Also ask for a Pugh clause. If you do not know what that is, now would be a good time to learn.
Do not rush into anything. Let them get a few missed calls. Bargain, and do your homework. talk to the other land owners.
As I said, ........EVERYTHING IS NEGOCIABLE. Always remember, a 3/16 or 1/5 royalty interest in an oil well is better than a 1/4 interst in nothing.....
wcm
Words of experience and wisdom! Thank you! : ) Vicki
Apparently something is going on... and I don't believe that anyone would dispute that oil and gas companies would their hands on what I believe is about to be very hot producing property, based upon the geological and geophysical data that is available. I have heard that some people in a pool where they had 1/16th interest just on their property, exclusive of the pool is paying that family $100K a month, plus $7.50/ft for every foot of pipeline that is laid on their ranch. Whether that is true or not, well, I do not know, however, the fellow who told me is a retired pipeline engineer for one of the majors.
If things really start to pick up then I will definitely be giving Madisonville's best lawyer to take over for me.
Dear folks;
Here is a recent map of the Eagle Ford Shale. Note that it doesn't appear to extend into Madison County at this time. One concern that you can see in the map is the curve of the Austin Chalk outcroppings [in black]. The curve sweeps northward as it goes East. That would indicate a miss for Madison County. But, it is changing daily. So much remains to be discovered with new technology. This is not a time to be overly anxious.
Best regards,
Ernieshaleusa9.pdf
I had heard some of the same things re: the Eagle Ford shale in SE Madison county running into the western part of Brazos and the N.E. part of Grimes. I they are bringing in hydrocarbon distillates from a deep depth in these areas. I believe approximately half way through Madison Co., in the south end, the New Gulf has had a lot of success. You would be amazed what you can find out once you master open source intelligence and the use of Google.
OK…now I’ve gotten my third lease ready for me to sign of course. No land man, my sister tried to call them, but to no avail, they want to “amend a lease that was signed in 1984” on one and something similar on the other. They want to go sideways now. But, here is the odd thing, not one number on the lease documentation. Not one number. I can’t tell you anything about it. Is it better to get a lawyer here in Dallas where I live? As good as the lawyers are in Madisonville, it is a long way to drive and they can’t be experts in oil and gas can they? Martin, you offered to help and I couldn’t figure out how to scan a legal size document on this scanner. This is too important to let them go fast and give us no information. I am grateful for all the leases, though! : )
I would call Wesley Lloyd who is an Oil and Gas Expert in Waco, let him know that you that you were referred to him by the “Madison County Group” as he has already done a lot of work in Madison county so he is way ahead of the learning curve (someone else paid that expense) and he will talk with you for free.
Oh wesley’s number is (EDITED BY ADMIN - Please use the private messaging system for contact information) and he has saved us landowners a lot money and helped us avoid a lot of mistakes!
The reason you are receiving requests to "amend" old leases is that the oil companies may believe that your property is held by production. But, a number of old leases are not suitable for horizontal drilling. Thus, you need to have all the facts about your property and lease before you agree to a new deal that may not be any more beneficial than what you presently have. Ernie [in Bryan]
Thanks for all the help here you guys. You make me feel at least a little protected against these big oil companies with their leases that are written in their very own language and in the tiniest print, too! One of the “ammendments” to the old lease written in 1974 wants to expand the lease acreage from 40 acres to 640 acres! I thought it was a bit funny, but Martin said they could slide it through with a depth cause if I weren’t aware of what was going on and maybe even then. No matter…I am definitely calling a lawyer…thanks for the names…this is important to me. I hope it is true that some one is making $100,000 a month! I’d love to get it, but it is fun just thinking anybody like me from where my roots are is getting it! Just makes me smile inside, you know? : ) VJ
I listened in on the Crosstex shareholders conference call yesterday, and they are putting a lot of attention in both the Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk plays.
Looking at the map below, the Austin Chalk doesn't seem to get into the S.E. portion of Madison Co. but as someone else pointed out...I (we, us) don't really know how much seismographic shooting has been done in these areas and since hydrocarbons are like birds and have a tendency to migrate all over the area...who knows. The Eagle Ford just bumps our property.
Back in 73, a test well was dug down to a depth of 17000 feet on our property. Since I was still pretty young, everything had to be pretty much explained to me, and one thing did stick out. Under the RRC rules, the test well was allowed to run at full out open choke for one day. During that time it measured out at 3000 psi at the “tophole?” Anyway. the thing was plugged the next day, because the cost to drill anything down that deep back in 73 was not cost beneficial. I do remember working my way through grad school as a geophysical tech and learning about how hydrocarbons loved to migrate to the down thrown side of a salt dome. I remember looking at some of the high and low res shots taken of the area and their were a lot of deep salt domes in the Madison, Brazos and Grimes area typically following along the path of Bedias creek. Anyone else heard/seen anything of this?
FYI…just heard from my real estate agent who is handling the agricultural lease of our pasture land and he said he saw a couple of rigs along 1372 headed away from Madisonville and toward Iola.
You would be surprised at how good a lawyer Sonny Knight, a lawyer, is in Madisonville and he has been helping landowners quite a bit with these matters.
However, Graci, living in the big city of Dallas, if you can't call one of the big law firms and make an appointment and take with you your deed of trust which shows that you were conveyed the mineral rights upon sale of the property along with the mineral deed...heaven help you because you are going to be in a mess.
BTW, where is your property located... N or S of 1372?