I am writing on behalf of my mom who has three different acreage areas (82, 75, 37) of mineral rights in doddridge county. She signed leases on 2 of them back in 2006 which have been renewed since. Although she has yet to get any royalty checks. We don’t live in wv and are trying to find out if the wells are even producing. So that is my first question…how do we do that?
Next, she recrived 2 letters over the weekend regarding the area of land without a lease requesting to buy her mineral rights for $8900. My thought is to say no but would love some advice. Tenmile is the company who offered but it actually came on letterhead from chad Johnson the CEO…googled his name and found real company info.
Finally, she also got a letter from a mike Ross who claims to have a check to send her but needs a w 9 from her. I don’t think she should send to him as we have no idea who he is.
Thank you in advance for any help and advice. …lost to this process…
3. Don't sell. Doddridge is an active area and companies are drilling. Somebody must be interested in the area where unleased acreage is, and Tenmile must know of that interest. I don't know about them but even if you wanted to sell, that is extremely low offer.
4. Ask Mike Ross who he is. He might be with one of the companies that she is leased with, and there might be a well producing. If so, the w 9 is a good thing to do. If that is true, ask him what the API number is. If you get one, you can go to this website http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas/databaseinfo/Pages/default.aspx
and find where to search for permit numbers, and another place to search the map database. The company is not required to report any production numbers to the state until next March (2014) for this year's production, and it won't get posted immediately.
5. Does she own all the mineral or OGM interest?
6. Read as much as you can on this website. A lot of good information.
I know 2 of them are in the mcclleland district. I will check exact locations though.
She owns 1/8th of each.
Her first lease is with tenmile out of Bridgeport on the 75 acres.
Her second lease is with another company that I will get the name on the 37 acres.
She has no lease on the 82 acres.
Mike Ross told her the $70 check is for an old well that was opened up and is producing. Oddly though she does not have a lease with him. I will have her call back his company and ask for the API number. Thank you.
$70.00 is absurd don't fall for it! Do your research! Get a good oil and gas lawyer out of the area if possible. One that is not also working for the drilling company! Know who you are dealing with! A lot of tricks have been sent my way. Good luck!
Mike Ross owns a lot of oil and gas rights plus property. Very tricky! He was a politician and has had charges filed against him. Do your research!
Another very reasonable WV oil and gas attorney is Kyle Nuttall of Buckhannon, near Doddridge. He is a member of this forum. My sister and I have been helped by him.
Nancy, good job getting this lady going in the right direction. Some of those oil/gas people are pretty good con artist. Who knows how many people signed their property over and never even knew what they signed. I agree with getting with Kyle since he has been in this business of oil/gas.
Thanks DT. We need to help each other as much as we can. Some of this seems obvious to people, but for most of us, it is a steep learning curve we have to make. The oil and gas companies already know what to do.
He may be busy and involved in a case. He will get back as soon as he can. Just be patient with the oil/gas situation and use this forum to keep everyone here informed. There are some folks on here that will help you answer any questions you might have. Don't be bashful, as all questions are of importance whether asked here or to the companies involved. As far as the unleased parcel of 82 acres, i would say it will be desirable and I am surprised that some other legit companies have not approached you to lease. As far as the other tracts, if there are leases that are held by production, there will be less if anything you can do with those except collect the royalty. Whoever the company was trying to buy up the minerals on the other, is trying to steal it from you and lease it or sell to another company.
As far as this Ross trying to send you a check, I would not go for that until you find out what is going on. Do you know if he was talking about an old well on the 82 acres? Has that 82 acre tract ever been leased in the past? If so he could be fixing up paperwork and trying to put an old lease back in effect. That would be illegal if that old lease was void. The only way it could have been kept active is if monies were paid to you to keep the lease in force. Just a thought.
Need help said:
I have called and emailed Kyle a few times this week and no reply. :(. I appreciate everyone's help!
Thanks for the recommendation, everyone. I'm sorry I've been out of touch. I took on too many cases and couldn't keep up for a while there. I've gotten myself a secretary and we're digging out now. Luckily there are a lot of people here who have excellent advice, and it looks like Need Help got help. She's been in touch with me and I'll see if I can do something for her.
Antero has 14 drilling rigs running Doddridge Harrison Tyler counties. EQT and some others are in there also, I would deal with Antero being a major player and the other major companies directly. Antero is spending $525 million just on water line to service there drilling operations. there in for the long haul.
sooner or later they will contact you, or give them a call tell them what you have. ..just my 2 cents
Search for Mike Ross using the FIND feature on your internet browser (On IE, it is under EDIT and on Crome use the 3 lines on the right and FIND will be on the list.)