The state regulates well spacing, usually one well per 640 acres or one well per 1280 acres. However there are times when spacing is less than 640 acres. It is my understanding that pooling is based on either one or two sections, depending in what part of the county we are talking about.
I wished I could be informed when I might receive a check from I beleive Continental, on a well named lucelle in burke county. Dose anyone have any info on when?
Mr. Johnson, can you provide the legal description, township, range and section so I can determine when first sales from your well began ? By statute in ND the operator is supposed to make payment within 150 days after first sales, or the operator owes you interest on any payments more than 150 days past due. This only applies if you have excellent title. If your title is not very good, probates done, deed in your name recorded at the county courthouse where the minerals lie, the operator can hold your payments in suspense, interest free, until such time as you complete action to repair any blemish on your title and notify the lessee/operator. The lessee can determine that an interest is yours, lease from you and pay you bonus, and still claim your title is not good enough to pay royalty. Many operators are behind on title work, some as much as a year. It would also be helpful to know if you have received a division order yet.
Any comment if a By-Pass Probate is accepted by the oil companies in North Dakota? Thanks!
Debbi, I think you will have to define by-pass probate, when I looked it up several things came up, all related but not exactly the same. If you are talking about joint tenancy, I think the answer would be yes. Trust lawyers are doing a booming business in ND and I'm afraid it means the preferred vehicle for passing property outside of probate is the trust. It doesn't mean you can't try with whatever you have, after all oil companies have been known to pay on an affidavit of heirship. But the oil companies in ND seem so hungry and want to hang on to royalty until the mineral owner jumps through the maximum number of hoops possible.
We are in the process of using a By-Pass Probate. Our grandparents purchased mineral rights back in 1952. We are using them and by-passing our parents directly to we grandchildren. Does that help?
Debbi, I understand what you mean now. I am sure it would work if you are doing the probate in ND and results in mineral deeds in your name, I had a title lawyer from Conoco tell me that is what they look for. I think as long as an ND court recognizes that the property has passed, it will be fine. If you are doing the bypass probate in another state I think you would still have to probate in ND because ND does not recognize other states probates.
Thank you R. W. We are doing the By-Pass Probate in North Dakota, not another state. I appreciate you passing this along. Trying to hopefully alleviate other probates as they gets really expensive.
Debbi, as long as the deed is in your name there should be no problem.
That is the goal to have the deed in the individual family member name. I will keep you posted if this does or doesn't work. Hopefully it will help someone else dealing with oil companies down the road. Thank you for all of your help!
Mr. Kennedy, before I let my cousins know what you said, and you tell me if you are a landman? They will want to know how "you" feel so sure of what you told me. Sorry, I trust what you say, but they need to know. Thank you.
Debbi, I am not a landman, but I do have 10 producing wells and two awaiting completion. I was passing on what a title opinion lawyer told me about what they are looking for. The mineral deed in your name is "it". Even with the mineral deed in your name the operator will have to search to see if anyone else has a claim/prior reservations [ they do this for all interests ] but as far as I know there is nothing better than the court saying you own it and having a deed in your name recorded in the county courthouse in which the minerals exist, [save possibly a quiet title action which would extinguish all other claims even if legitimate if not presented to the court within a period of time, but if nobody else is trying to claim your minerals you need not worry about that]. How could you get better than that ? If your action in an ND court results in deeds in your name recorded in the county courthouse, it should be more than good enough for the operator, it's what I have and no operator has asked me to jump through any hoops beyond signing and returning a division order, which I declined to do and they had to pay me without delay or they would have owed me interest on royalty past due, but that's another story. The deed in your name, recorded in the courthouse of the county in which the minerals lie, that's what you need.
Thank you Mr. Kennedy for your candid information. Our family has interests in other counties in ND so they are involved with the probate too. It is nice to know that the operators will look more favorably upon a deed in our name. We have had other title opinions come back saying we would have to probate our parents too. That is why we are following through with a By-Pass Probate to skip additional costs and headaches. Thank you so much for all of your knowledge!!!
Debbi, the state/court makes the determination of who owns what. Probating your grandparents and then your parents would be the normal course of events, but if the court will let you by-pass, the deed is what matters. For the moment at least, I don't think the oil companies get to tell the state what to do. The state of ND recently added requirements for the disposal of drilling waste, if the oil companies could tell the state what to do I am sure they would have saved themselves 400k per well and still be burying the waste onsite. Debbi, make sure that the deeds are recorded in all the counties that the minerals are in.
We are now waiting for all of the counties to finish recording the deeds. We have a ND attorney doing the probate for us. I am sure he would not go this route if the court system would not allow it. When we receive the deeds we will present to the oil companies holding suspense money for us and hopefully move forward. Again, thank you!
We're new to this, so be patient. We own mineral rights in Mountrail Co., to be specific section 35-152-93. The exploration company has two (2) wells named 2-26-35H & 6-26-35TPH located on section 23-152-93.
My question is, since the wells name include section 35 does that mean we would eventually get royalties. Out of confidential status on 1/14. Just planning.
Enrique,
Slawson has two wells in Section 35 going Section 2 to the south. You should have been getting paid on those going back to 2011. Wells drilled from Section 35 to the north through sections 26 and 23 will not encounter your minerals. they were just spudded (started down) from Section 35 the surface location.
The operators all assign different names to their wells so you can't always tell a book by its cover.
Gary Hutchinson
Minerals Maagement
Enrique, yes you should get royalty from the two JUGARD wells presumably 1 Bakken and 1 Three Forks well.
You already have 2 nice wells with 316,613 barrels cumulative production between them on a 640 spacing.
The new wells are going to be on a larger spacing diluting your royalty. From looking at the map I see a lot od Case#'s C20112 and a case C19513 that tells me there are a lot of changes pooling/spacing/unitization in the area. Hopefully this will get you a little farther along in your quest for knowledge. You should be able to call the NDIC O&G Division and ask what the case numbers pertain to.
Thank you Gary, We are in agreement with your answer to section 35 south and north, and we are getting paid for south.
My questions is about 23-152-93 apparently going south through sections 26 & 35.
Enrique
RW may have the answer.
I have a client with minerals in one section but is in 2 wells with 1280 spacing and 2 new wells in 2560 spacing. It takes some doing to figure things out but you should be good in the long run as closely as you watch things. GLH