Multiple lease offers -should I lease or pool?

I’ve received two lease offers and a pooling application for Sections 15 & 16 of Township 01S, Range 04W. One of the lease offers is from Bearcat Land, Inc. on behalf of Continental Resources who applied for the pooling. The other lease offer is from Hall-Ward Energy Fund and is for better terms. Is it better to take the best least offer or wait for the pooling? I’m not sure how the pooling works.

0_The Pooling Process in Oklahoma.pdf (340.4 KB)

Personally, I go with whomever offers the best lease terms and clauses. And I strongly suggest that you get a good oil and gas attorney to review any lease as the draft lease is rarely in the mineral owner’s favor and needs significant edits. I have found that third party leases are often much more friendly to edits than the operator leases.

If I cannot get a good lease with reasonable terms, then I have no problem with pooling. It is essentially a short term “lease” of either six months or a year with defined reservoirs. It can have its own advantages. In several cases, the wells have not been drilled in the time frame and I have been paid multiple bonus amounts to extend the pooling.

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Thank you! The Pooling Process info is great.

The alternative I took was not to wait for an offer. I tracked down all interested leasers/buyers and asked for their best offer. You’ll get interesting offers.

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