We have been told that the pooling order has been issued, how would we find the pooling order terms? We have a lease offer but they aren’t willing to remove surface right terms which makes us nervous. Offer is $500 with 1/5 royalty, trying to decide if we should sign? Thanks for any guidance!
First, you need to post the entire location. You forgot the range. If so, then I can look up the pooling order. Did you get a notice from the OCC regarding the pooling?
Second, do you own the surface? If you do, then you need a separate surface lease. If not, then those surface terms in a mineral lease do not usually affect you as a mineral owner. Some of them are very common and are more of a courtesy and have been in leases for decades and decades. (Not giving legal advice…) It would depend upon what they say and which ones you are concerned about as to what you would do to negotiate on them. Which ones concern you?
If you are thinking about a lease, at this point, there is a 20 day time frame on the pooling answer, so you are cutting it short. I hardly ever sign a draft lease from a lessee. It usually needs lots of changes to become more mineral friendly.
1 Like
Thanks so much for your help! We are definitely not experts in this area. Our location is Section 21, Township 7 N, Range 2 West. We have not received anything on the pooling order. We do own both surface and mineral rights. There are a lot of terms in the draft contract that make me nervous but I have zero expertise in this space. They advise since we only own 10 acres we shouldn’t be concerned about the surface rights, which could be 100% accurate, we just don’t know. I’m generally just nervous about signing an agreement with so many terms that seem unfavorable to us if we would get same/similar terms through pooling order which I would assume would not have the same terms. You are a true blessing providing guidance! Understand it is not legal advice. THANK YOU
There were actually two pooling cases. One with Rox and one with BP. The Rox one was dismissed in July and the BP one was decided back in June.
Do you have a current offer to lease or was this an older one that came before June?
Which surface clauses are you concerned about?
Which Quarter section of 21 are you in? I am looking at possible surface locations.
Thanks for the additional research. We did receive notification on the Rox pooling order dismissal but not the BP pooling order. The lease offer is current, we just received and my husband spoke with them within the past week. We are in the dead center of section 21 on the West side. The lease agreement gives full surface rights, while we are just wanting to protect surface rights. Let me know what other information would be helpful. Thanks!