Oil & gas discussion group for those interested in Moffat County, CO. Share your experience regarding lease bonus, royalty rates, drilling activity, and oil & gas news.
Is everyone still getting better and better offers?
I can’t speak to “better and better offers” but… I received a "proposed unit agreement for the Williams Fork area of Moffat County. Previously I had leased with East Resources, who was bought out by Shell. I recently signed a 5-year lease extension with Shell. Now SWEPI is proposing to unitize their leases (along with what appears to be leased BLM interests) in this area. I am still uncertain if I want to sign up to the unitize agreement, but my mineral interests are very small, so it may not matter anyway. Would be interested in hearing from others on their thoughts regarding the unitize agreement being proposed by SWEPI.
Jerry Hicks
Thanks for kicking off a Moffat County group. It’s overdue.
I currently have a lease offer from SWEPI. Seems pretty good but I really want a lawyer to take a look at the lease. I’ve contacted three lawyers in the Craig area and none of them can take my case currently. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good lawyer who understands natural resource leases?
I’ve found several lawyers in the Craig/Steamboat area, I’ve decided to go with Ralph Cantafio in Steamboat Springs. His website is at: http://www.cantafiolaw.com. I’ve had a good initial conversation with him over the phone, and I think that he will be perfect for the job. He has also written several papers on the subject of oil/gas leasing that are available in pdf form at his website. I’m in the process of reading them but at first blush they seem a good read with valuable information.
There were others in the Steamboat/Craig area. Thomas Thornberry in Craig Thomas C Thornberry 555 Breeze St # 250 Craig, Colorado 81625 (970)8247057
I think would be an excellent choice, however he is not taking on any new oil/gas clients at the present time.
In Denver I found a Michael Williams. He responded well to my questions about his practice and experience. His rates were fair I think. You can reach him at:
Michael C. Williams, Esq. DENVER: 1660 Lincoln St. #2330, Denver CO 80264 Phone: (720)-214-1861 Fax 303-265-9652
Sherri Sweers at Feldmann Nagel et al responded well to questions but does not have the experience level yet. I have heard that this law firm does not have a great reputation, but I do not have any personal experience with them as this time.
Sherri L. Sweers, L.L.C. Feldmann Nagel Brauchler & Weeden (CO Division) Feldmann Nagel, LLC P.O.Box 775628 Steamboat Springs, CO 80477 ssweers@feldmann-nagel.com (970) 879-8616
BTW I think that $425/acre is currently a reasonable offer if you are in the “area of interest”. I.e. they contacted you rather than you contacting them.
I recently received an unsolicited lease offer for my mineral rights from Yates Petroleum Corp. for 40 (net) acres in T9N R92W of Moffat County. Anyone know of activity/interest in this area and if this is a reasonable offer? Thanks.
Sorry, I forgot to note the bonus was $50/acre.
George - thank you for this information. I had already contacted Thornberry, but all the other lawyers were ones that I had no info on. Can you tell me if the $425/acre is for a 3-year lease with a 2-year option or a flat 5 years? Currently, the offer we have is $500/acre for 5 years.
Thanks.
Joseph, from my short experience, an initial “lowball” offer seems normal.
Of course, $50 is an extreme example of that. We are in T8N, R92W and had a similar unsolicited offer that started at $110 with very unfavorable conditions in the wording of the lease. All of that has improved with time and negotiation. Hang in there.
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Dennis - Thanks, I had assumed as much and will contact a lawyer in the area before signing anything. Significant unfavorable conditions in the first lease in my opinion compared to other leases I’ve had in the past.
The lease from QuickSilver was for a 3 year with 2 year option.
Joseph-
YES YATES is low-balling you. I have a soon to be expiring lease with them and they sent me the same thing…the original lease (signed 3 yrs ago) was 5X $. AND, Shell (interestingly, but not an appealing thing for me, came in a few weeks ago with a “top lease” on the same piece. For my part, I will let Yates come back…my lease is not up until June.
Mahoney,
Yes, I’ve a close friend who owns a business doing lateral drilling/fracturing and he says this is all just the start of the boom and the best thing to do at this point is sit back and wait a while to see what develops, which is what I intend to do (my lease with another company expired a while back). He told me there was a very recent article on the Niobrara play in Colorado in one of his very recent issues of the Oil and Gas Journal (I haven’t seen it). He did say Yates is an impressive company that has found lots of oil and just the fact that one has received an unsolicited lease is significant. He’s looking at a copy of their proposed lease for me now.
The link to the article is at http://geosurvey.state.co.us/pubs/Documents/rtv13n1%204-15-11%20B.pdf
These are the drilling records of a well drilled about 0.25 miles from my property. There is another well about 3 miles away that has similar records. Can anyone interpret these records and let me know my chances of having a good well?
TROUT CREEK UNIT #1-A (click well name for production) Operator: P & M PETROLEUM MANAGEMENT LLC - 66565 Status Date: 8/28/1982 Federal or State Lease #: County: ROUTT #107 Location: NWNE 21 Township 4N Range 86W 6 PM Field: WILDCAT - #99999 Elevation: 7,398 ft. Planned Location 1000 FNL 2600 FEL Lat/Long: 40.309994/-107.046712 Lat/Long Calculated From Footages
Wellbore Completed Completion Date: 8/22/1979 Measured TD: 6379 Measured PB depth: True Vertical TD: True Vertical PB depth: Bottom Hole Location: Section 21 Township 4N Range 86W Footages: 982 FNL 493 FEL Depth Formation Log Top Log Bottom Cored DSTs MANCOS 2548 NIOBRARA 5135 Completed information for formation NBRR 1st Production Date: N/A Choke Size: Status Date: 7/7/1983 Hole Completion: Commingled: N Production Method: Formation Name: NIOBRARA Status: AB Formation Treatment: Tubing Size: Tubing Setting Depth: Tubing Packer Depth: Tubing Multiple Packer: Open Hole Top: Open Hole Bottom: Initial Test Data: Test Date: 9/5/1979 Test Method: PUMPING Hours Tested: 24 Gas Type: Gas Disposal: Test Type Measure BBLS_OIL 7.9 CASING_PRESS 10 Perforation Data: Interval Bottom: 6246 Interval Top: 5136
of Holes: Hole Size:
There are some great links to existing drill sites, permits and maps at:
I was wondering if anyone has a good answer for this question.
If we had an active lease in Weld County in the 80’s and were receiving royalties and then when the driller changed hands and 2 opinion lawyers over the course of late 80’s and early 90’s failed to find our deed in the search, and royalties stopped but drillers continued to drill on and off over the course of 20 years without knowing we own a percentage of the mineral rights and no monies were suspended for future payments.
The question is does this constitute a breach of contract and is the lease invalid. The current drilling company has no record of us and says the minerals are owned by the same family that signed the deed we have found at the recorder’s office dated 1944.
We inherited these rights in 94 and a bank is the one that released four deeds to us at the same time. Two have already been leased out, 1 a couple months ago and 1 2 years ago.
Thanks for any information.
We have 320 acres in Weld and 160 in Morgan. Two years ago we only received about $8,000 total for the Weld property with a 5 plus 3 option at 14%. This was just before Jake was drilled. We are 30 miles south of Jake. A few wells have been drilled in the area but still they have not reached our location.
In Morgan, which is 30 miles east of Greeley, a landman would only give us $350 an acre. We contacted an energy company that bought at a land auction 4 miles from our location. They gave us $1,500 an acre for a 5 year no option to extend at 18%. Looking at the Moffit map at the COGCC website I see very little action in Township 9. No new wells are listed on the COGCC site for any area around this location. If it was me I would not sign a lease. You will be lucky to get lunch money for it and you would still have to pay taxes on it. If you do not know about the COGCC website check it out and check the boxes in the legend for oil wells. There are 4 options. Click one at a time. All the red dots are wells from the past.
Do a web search on the wells that are in your area. Example type “05-123-17893 production”
Zoom in on the map and you will get these well numbers.