I have an interesting situation. We have a paragraph in our lease that requires the operator to drill a well within 100 days of a commercial offset well drilled and completed within 1000 feet of our lease line. We have two direct offsets to our east (verticals), and now a significant horizontal to 467’ from our north line. Rig is already late for the east side and no way will they be timely for the new north offset.
I did contact the company landman, but that was a week ago and no response yet…crickets chirping…
Any of you fine folks familiar with this situation?
Stephen,
This issue is very dependent on the lease language. My experience is you have to document it, i.e. write letters, to get them to do something.
The lease language is clear. I talked with the Tx Land Comm. and he said that extensions are sometimes granted, but normally not after an expiration of the 100 days has occurred. Still have not had a call back from the landman. It would be easy to drill the wells back to back while the rig is there, or so it seems.
It is also contingent on the reservoir or formation being drained. If your lease does not cover the same depths the offset wells are producing in, their is no offset requirement. If your lease does cover the same depths, you can get in contact with Harriet Dunne at the GLO. She is the Mineral Manager and will review their files and make a determination on whether the lease should be terminated. They will send out a termination letter to the leasehold owner, which they have 30 days in which to respond.