Question, Williams County

I just joined this forum, my brother, sister and I leased our mineral rights in 157 97 17 (320 acres, 45 mineral acres) to Diamond Resources in 2008. They have told us the Hess Corporation started drilling toward the end of February. On the ND Oil & Gas web site it shows a rig in the section below 17. My question is will this well go north into section 17? Our lease is for 1/6 so if this covers two sections what should we expect in terms of royalty not knowing information about the others involved? What should do if anything at this point? Diamond has told us to just be patient and wait to hear from someone with a division order. Is there anything you would suggest or comments on the next steps? Thanks, Ron

We all live out of state

Ron, it looks like Hess is drilling 2 wells from that pad and one will be yours and the other will be for the 1280 spacing south of your 1280 spacing. Depending on when Hess fracks your well you could expect a division order followed by checks 8 months to 18 months from now if you have clear title, deeds in your names. If you have a blemish on your title, I would fix it now because the regulations require you to be paid 150 days after first sales or you are owed interest, but only if you have clear title, so if you need probate/s done, now is the time. I hope you get a good well, and maybe in the next decade they will come back and drill you another one or two wells.

Thank you for the feedback