Cimarex, Mississipian: oil 331, gas 2829, water 1685, 1-15N-13W, Watts 1h-0136x, May 10, 2017, HH, oil, TD 21916 ft, Lat 35.79839 Long -98.53205 API 35011 236840000. June 5, 2017
I have been named by the court in Blaine County (Watonga) as the personal representative for two estates conferring 10 net acres of the Northwest Quarter of this section. The well runs up the midline of the section from the extreme south and on into the adjacent northern section. I contacted Cimarex this week and they are looking into the situation.
What can I expect next? Thanks in advance for your insight and advice!
Hmm... apparently you were unsigned? So they want to integrate you into the pool? You have 10 acres of a 640 acre unit (likely - might be different) and some percentage is in the section your 10 acres is. That's 10÷640, or .01563 (1.563% aka 1/64th). You have whatever the percent is, say 50% (the rest being in the section north and south?. so that becomes 1/128th... and if a 3/16th lease, that is hmm.. a pretty small number but that's OK. The question is are you leased? Are they wanting to get the name of the party that is owed the interest? Or are they trying to negotiate the lease at this late stage?
Mr. Shields, I believe the OP described a 2 section well and all of their interest would be in the two sections, if that is a matter of moment.
To the OP, I would expect to be ignored and given the run around.
Thanks for the reply. The leasing rights were segregated from my Mineral Deed and the Archdiocese of OKC leased to Cimarex a couple of years ago. They began drilling just before the lease ran out at the beginning of this year. Cimarex is just now learning from me, as we speak, that my small interest exists. I would like to know what they will ask of me at this point. (I only learned of the old and long forgotten 1938 mineral deed from an individual landman/investor who was researching with intent to buy.)
Thomas, that puts a different face on things. You say the leasing rights were segregated from your deed? I think you are going to have to define segregated, does it mean executive rights only? or did they reserve mineral rights in total?
Someone is going to need the entire deed language to determine exactly what you have because you may not have any minerals from that deed or you may have everything except executive rights. Hard to tell from what you have given so far.
If the well was begun before the end of the previous lease and drilled with enough diligence to not exceed the continuing operations clause of no more than 60-90-180 days-1 year of cessation of operations, then the acreage may already be under a valid subsisting lease. You would have to look at the lease to be certain of the terms.
The Mineral Deed states: "an undivided one-sixteenth interest in and to all of the oil, gas and other minerals in and under that may be produced from the following described lands in Blaine County, State of Oklahoma, to wit: Lots Three and Four and the south half of the Northwest Quarter of Section 1, Township 15N, Range 13W, containing 160 acres......including egress and ingress etc for mining and drilling etc...."
The property was subsequently leased to Cimarex for drilling under a lease dated 11-26-2014 by the Archdiocese of OKC and leading to the well completion described above.
A potential purchaser of my rights researched the situation and discovered that the "rights to lease had been severed" from my Mineral Deed, and belonged to the Archdiocese of OKC.
Thomas, that sounds like the executive rights.
I also think it's highly likely that the operator "saved" the lease by operations. If you weren't keeping a close eye on operations, it's tough to prove there weren't any.
In your place I would notify Cimarex which it appears you have already done. I would then complete the probate, record the Personal Representatives Deed of Distribution and send a certified copy to Cimarex. Contact Cimarex and ask where they would like you to send the certified copy of the deed as you don't want it getting lost in the shuffle and might be a good idea to send it return receipt requested to dot I's and cross Tees. If you could get a copy of the lease for your own records, that might be handy for the future, if you don't already have one.