EOG offered $800/ac and 1/5 for 30ac. Anybody got a recent offer?
Yes, my 2 siblings and I have 465 acres/3.02 NMA and our offer from Braden Exploration was $700 per net acre signing bonus and 18.5% royalties.
Similar offers. Good Luck in negotiating.
susan reaves said:
Yes, my 2 siblings and I have 465 acres/3.02 NMA and our offer from Braden Exploration was $700 per net acre signing bonus and 18.5% royalties.
Don’t take less than 1/4 royalty. You’ll have that royalty income longer than you’ll have the bonus.
Yes, but not as good as that.
Do you have a land agent contact for EOG for this area? I have some minerals as well I'm needing to lease.
Thanks
A week or so ago I got an offer from EOG at $350 for 23 nma on land a few miles northwest of Bowie. I had a previous offer (2008) of $500 and didn't take that one, let it slide. I told the EOG landman that I wouldn't take $350 so I am now waiting for him to 'check' with his EOG contact. Judging from the entries on this and other discussion pages, the offers from EOG vary widely. Don't know if this is because of the location of the land or because they try to low-ball the offers and some initial offers are accepted and some are not.
John Hansard: Where is your land located?
Also, I cannot find any energy lawyers in Montague county to look to for advice on a lease. Anyone know of someone who has lease knowledge for that area?
It is the landman's job to get the lease for the lowest amount - his checking with his EOG contact is probably a stall tactic - he already knows what a fair lease with royalty is. I did a search on O&G attorneys in our area and only one that exclusively did O&G was in Dennison/Sherman area - I don't remember the name, but you can google O&G attorneys in Grayson County Texas and find who it was. They will be worth every penny you pay them.
Last I heard in Montague County leasing was between $600-$1,000 per acre with a 25% royalty - but you have to have other clauses in your lease or their little deducts here and there will eat up your royalties. When an area is proven to be productive the lease amount per acre go up significantly.
I may have signed for too little, however I was tired of the back and forth with Anderson Energy Development Group about the lease contract contents. AED was doing the lease negotiations for EOG (AED monitors this forum, by the way) and the landman said that they pay more for the core land than they do for outlying areas. Since I don’t know what is core and what is not because I live about 140 miles from there and don’t know anyone around there anymore, I signed for $500 and 1/5. Maybe that was too little, maybe not. I probably should have visited the area to see what was shaking. My mineral interest is located about 3 miles north-northwest of Bowie and is on a 104 acre tract that my father owned back in the 1950’s.
Next go round when the lease expires be sure to use a good O&G attorney -
Several O&G attorneys exist where I live, none were interested since the money was so small. Typical of most lawyers, they all were looking for bigger potatoes to harvest. My job was just small potatoes.
That’s odd, I would think you would have hired the attorneys to write the lease and they would charge their fee for writing a lease. The attorneys would negotiate the lease for you but charge you a fee - there wouldn’t be anything for them to get from the oil company - I do recommend Chuck Bartusch in Muenster though - he has done all our stuff and done a very good job at an extremely reasonable rate too.
The local lawyers were only going to get their money from my bonus, but they weren’t even interested in looking at EOG’s standard written lease because the money was too small. I will write down Mr. Bartusch’s name in case the opportunity ever comes up again.
I can see why they would want to work based on a percentage of the leasing bonus money - some of those amounts are huge - I hope you will be able to do business with Mr. Bartusch - he’ll do you a good job and he has an open ear to what you might find out in the future too.
Yes, my family was contacted by EOG last year in Bowie...a 77 acre tract of land and I believe 23 heirs. Yesterday one of their men contacted me to send me a lease and come to find out, other family members have already signed on. From what I am reading on this post, the lease offer he sent me isn't very good. $500/acre, 3 year lease 3/16 Royalty, which includes cost of production and taxes out of the royalties. They sent me an email saying they plan on drilling in a couple weeks???? The lease doesn't say anything about how payment is to be made, names of all owners, nor my percentage of ownership. I need some advise.
My family was contacted by EOG last year in Bowie...a 77 acre tract of land and I believe 23 heirs. Yesterday one of their men contacted me to send me a lease and come to find out, other family members have already signed on. From what I am reading on this post, the lease offer he sent me isn't very good. $500/acre, 3 year lease 3/16 Royalty, which includes cost of production and taxes out of the royalties. They sent me an email saying they plan on drilling in a couple weeks???? The lease doesn't say anything about how payment is to be made, names of all owners, nor my percentage of ownership. I need some advise.
Susan Nolen said:
It is the landman's job to get the lease for the lowest amount - his checking with his EOG contact is probably a stall tactic - he already knows what a fair lease with royalty is. I did a search on O&G attorneys in our area and only one that exclusively did O&G was in Dennison/Sherman area - I don't remember the name, but you can google O&G attorneys in Grayson County Texas and find who it was. They will be worth every penny you pay them.
Last I heard in Montague County leasing was between $600-$1,000 per acre with a 25% royalty - but you have to have other clauses in your lease or their little deducts here and there will eat up your royalties. When an area is proven to be productive the lease amount per acre go up significantly.
Dusky Johnson: "Several O&G attorneys exist where I live, none were interested since the money was so small. Typical of most lawyers, they all were looking for bigger potatoes to harvest. My job was just small potatoes."
This has been precisely my problem, too. I wanted and was willing to pay for legal help about a possible lease in Montague, but no less than four O&G attorneys I approached either didn't respond at all, told me after a full month they didn't have time, or after promising the earth never gave a sign of life afterwards.
My conclusion is that all the talk about getting "expert advice" before signing a lease is wishful thinking if you're not a millionaire with thousands of acres to lease. Inform yourself and do the best you can writing lease clauses yourself. You can't possibly do any worse a job than someone with absolutely no interest, who on top of everything else charges money for his "services".
I respectfully disagree that getting an attorney (expert advise) is wishful thinking.
Don't think you can read a forum and become an expert on mineral leasing contract law. A person can definitely become educated and get many helpful tips on a forum like this. My personal recommendation is to get an expert attorney. They may charge a few hundred to help with contract review. using them for contract negotations and working with multiple landmen/gascos and soliciting deals is a different matter that many may try to get a percentage of the signing royalties - sometimes even an arrangement like this can be acceptable. Depending on what you need.
However, it isn't uncommon for attorney's in a hot area to get very busy and also sometimes attorneys in a hot spot get a little gun-shy about hammering landmen and gascos too much because they want "in on the deals" not to be excluded/alienated. I have often seen where experienced landowners have suggested getting an attorney from another region of the state where they would have the necessary experience, but not any local influence that might interfere; including the simple load (too busy) they may be experiencing in a local region leasing boom.
Good luck.
Wilson
Charles Laughlin said:
Dusky Johnson: "Several O&G attorneys exist where I live, none were interested since the money was so small. Typical of most lawyers, they all were looking for bigger potatoes to harvest. My job was just small potatoes."
This has been precisely my problem, too. I wanted and was willing to pay for legal help about a possible lease in Montague, but no less than four O&G attorneys I approached either didn't respond at all, told me after a full month they didn't have time, or after promising the earth never gave a sign of life afterwards.
My conclusion is that all the talk about getting "expert advice" before signing a lease is wishful thinking if you're not a millionaire with thousands of acres to lease. Inform yourself and do the best you can writing lease clauses yourself. You can't possibly do any worse a job than someone with absolutely no interest, who on top of everything else charges money for his "services".
Wilsontownship: The question wasn't whether you can become an O&G expert by reading forums, but whether you can obtain "expert" advice" from an O&G attorney even if you are willing to pay for the privilege. My experience is that you can't. The result is that you either make up your own lease, based on what you've read, sign anything and everything a lessee wants in the hope that you aren't being pulled over the table, or simply refuse to lease.
I would hardly term Montague a "hot area" at the moment or during the past two years (the period I've tried to get legal help on a lease).
Maybe life is easier if you live in the area. I don't, and have no local contacts or friends. And as mentioned, my experience has been uniformly negative. I'm happy if yours has been better.
But Charles, you are saying that Montague county isn't a hot spot. then you say there are several OG attys. then you say you can't get them to help you. That may be, so I am suggesting that an attorney in another part of the state be found. The attorney needs to be an OG expert and located in the state of the lease, but no need for the atty to be in the city or county of the lease.
I have read many posts on many forums over the past couple of years and although I would have a few things I would be thinking about in a lease, I would not lease without the help of an attorney. that is just me, well and many others that I have read recommending similar. Keep in mind that gascos have been leasing forever and they are masters at lease subtleties that are to their advantage these subtleties are hard to discern by us and even a basic contract law attorney - to me, that is why it is essential to have an experience OG atty.
Actually, my experience with leasing has been bad - not good as you assume - in fact, I am suing a gasco for breach of contract (in MI) and that is precisely why I advise people to work with attorneys. But even using an attorney isn't fool proof.
A method that you and others could use is to post a request on this site and others asking for attorney referrals. I am sure that people could suggest excellent attorneys in Texas that would be able to assist. What is great about boards like this is we get educated about all the pitfalls of leasing, not necessarily so we can write our own leases, but so that we can be more aware.
I feel your frustration with getting attorneys to help, but be assured there is even bigger frustration for a lifetime and beyond with a bad lease.
Good luck to all of us - that is for sure.
Wilson