Hi, I just joined this group. Maybe someone can give me some feedback.
My brother and I have mineral rights in Block C-8 PSL survey Sec. 14 Reeves county. We have signed 2 leases, both of which fell through for various reasons. We are getting discouraged because we are not getting any other offers. According to the rr commission map, there seem to be a lot of producing wells in and around Pecos. The last activity we had fell through in March. Are we just being impatient? or are we in the wrong area? We are totally new to this, so appreciate any info.
Can anyone tell me how much pipeline right-of-way easements are going for in Reeves County? Are landowners leasing easements or selling them?
Recently, I read, on this Forum, that the national average is $330.00 per rod (16.5 ft) and that in some parts of Texas, much higher amounts are being paid.
I’m just trying to find a plat map or something similar in order to locate precisely where my tiny piece of land is located. The description I have is:
All of the W/2 of Section 38 Block 2, H&GN RR Co. Survey, Reeves County.
I pay taxes to Reeves County and to Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD. I spoke with a landman at Anadarko this morning regarding a lease they offered at $500 per acre. He tried to tell me the land in question was not very valuable and they probably didn’t really want it, but it was leased for the previous five years so they were just extending it. When I mention the words “Bone Spring” and told him I knew owners were getting offers two to three times higher he suddenly needed to look at the map again. Then he came back and told me, “Oh, I was thinking about a different Section 38 when I sent out that bid. Your land is actually in a very good area. I’m sure I can do much better than that!”
While I’m waiting to see how much better he can do, I’d really like to know exactly where this property is. I can’t make heads or tails of the RRC website, I don’t have an Abstract number or any other description other than the one above and I haven’t been to Pecos or Balmorhea since I was a little kid on vacation! Does anyone know how to find my little nest egg???
I haven’t lived in TX in over 60 yrs and I think it’s very strange also. But, it’s nice to have the online tools. I live in SC now and I don’t think they have anything like the TX RR website. Have a good day.
Someone please tell me if I’m out in left field or not.
We have several sections in Reeves County. All are leased at this point in time. Several will be coming up for renewal/options in the next few months.
Here’s my question. Does it make any sense to attempt to contact the land owners who are adjacent to our sections to see what they are getting? We haven’t tried this before. We have just waited for landmen to contact us.
i went to the TX RR website and found 3 parcels in section 38 block 2. Then I went to the Reeves county tax appraisal website and found your parcel (http://reevescad.org/%28eyxd0445hcrovw55b1abvc55%29/rgeneral.aspx?I…). Your abstract is 3488. Let me know if you need more info on how to browse the TX RR maps.
Easiest thing might be to just ask the landman to email you copies of their maps showing the location. You’d probably get some nice color maps out of them.
I should mention, I had a lawyer negotiate our lease after I sensed the landman (a woman) for a drilling company was not being truthful with me in answering my questions. She also refused to tell me who the company behind the negotiations was, representing only the small “drilling company” supposedly to be the company we did business with. Had she given me that information, I may have been able to read that company’s quarterly reports on the SEC website and discovered what exploration activity they were reporting in my area. Later I did and found the bone spring information. The agent hid the ball and we took a low ball ultimately. Don’t let that happen to you. I would say it would be better to tell them forget it until you know which company you are really dealing with, and they’d better put it in writing. Once you know, then go research what those companies are reporting as to results in the quarterly reports with SEC. They want to give their investors the best news possible if it exists, so you won’t get this ‘not worth much’ song a dance reading it from that direction. My lawyer was the one who negotiated the $500/nma bonus rental. I am not sure he or I could have found info on what leases were going for back then without knowledge of the oil company that the drilling company was playing agent for. Their pretense was, they’d negotiate the lease then reveal who would step into the lessee’s spot once we came to terms. I wish I’d known more. We’re getting half of what we probably could have should they exercise their right to extend.
“Oh, I was thinking about a different Section 38 when I sent out that bid. Your land is actually in a very good area. I’m sure I can do much better than that!”
While I’m waiting to see how much better he can do, I’d really like to know exactly where this property is.
Okay … so that conversation was on Tuesday and I haven’t heard from him again. The property I own was originally a 1/4 section, split three ways when my mother died, which means my little parcel is only 13.33 acres. Probably not very exciting to the landman, so he’s probably got bigger fish to fry and not in any rush to deal with me. I did place a call to his secretary today and told her I was just checking back before the long weekend to see what, if anything, was happening. She said she’d have him return the call. He didn’t.
My real question is, should I have just signed the lease he sent in the first place? Everything I’ve read says not to jump at the first offer and that $500 per acre is low for that area right now, but … a bird in the hand IS worth two in the bush, and like everyone else in this economy, I can sure use the extra income right now. And really, I don’t want to put the kabosh on the deal. The same company has been leasing this piece of property for many years (along with the rest of the 1/2 section it originally encompassed two generations ago) and they’re very reputable, so I’d hate to lose them.
Am I just being a) greedy or b) impatient, is this the usual amount of time it takes for them to make another offer, or did I screw up and he’s just going to pitch my l3 acres into the wastebasket? Any guesses?
We’re in a similar position as Lori Smith below, negotiating with a landman now for a small mineral rights ownership (split many ways with other relatives). Does anyone have experience of what is the best way to handle such negotiations (I have looked at the PSL data which seems to indicate the bonus should be more than what we have been offered) but I realize our small ownership is just a tiny piece of the puzzle, and we don’t have a lot of leverage.
Callie, It appears that we’re pretty insignificant fish in a great big pond, hence our inability to get responses here or from our respective landmen. Since we little people have to stick together, I’ll let you know if I have anything to report … and you can do the same. I’m very aware that a few thousand dollars one way or the other is peanuts to someone who owns a few hundred acres, but for people like me, we’re talking about the difference between 1/4 and 1/3 of my annual income. It’s the difference between continuing to live out of a beer fridge or being able to afford a real refrigerator. I could sure use the money. I wish I could get a call back.
My cousins, brothers, sisters, etc and I own several sections jointly in Reeves County. We always negotiate/lease as a group, which makes us much more appealing to the landsmen. We pick one relative to be the ‘front’ person (she lives in Dallas, which makes it more convenient). This cousin keeps us all up todate on what’s happening and gets a concensous from the group before saying ‘ok’ to the final offer. The bonus money is split based upon our respective percentages. You need to get your relatives to agree to act as a single block for more ‘punch’.
To make things go smoother, we’re about to grant ‘power of attorney’ to the cousin in Dallas to sign for us to make it even easier. Our course you have to trust your relatives, which I know can be difficult from time to time.
lol … this is going to sound terrible, but it’s not worth having to communicate with my relatives in order to turn 13.3 acres into 40. I’d rather pay Anadarko to lease it.
Callie, I’d seen that new well on the map, but didn’t know how to access the information you sent, so thanks! I dropped an e-mail to the address on the permit. We’ll see what happens! : )
Thanks Lori and Bill for your comments. Well, I did manage to get a hold of the landman yesterday, and we negotiated a better bonus/royalty, but the lease he sent is a straight up Producers 88 - really favorable to the oil company but terrible for us. I can’t afford an attorney so I’m going to try to modify it myself (scary)… The way I negotiated with him, was by getting as much data as possible from the GLO reports of their auctions of public school land’s mineral leases. This took me a very long time, I looked back through to 2005 and found blocks/sections close to ours, and figured out the high bid per acre and low bid per acre. I was able to negotiate double what they offered before. Lori - I took a quick look at your survey on the GIS map, I see that in the next section kinda to the south west, there’s another company there (not Anadarko), with a new permit from Jan 2011. Energen Resources Company. If you look on the Current W1, there’s a contact person that signed off from that company. Might be worth contacting them to see if they want to pool your land in with their existing leases… Just an idea - if Anadarko’s not calling back, getting another offer would be good… Drilling Permits - General Exception…
You can call the General Land Office or the University Lands Office and they will tell you the information or how to access it, so that you can see what the State is being paid for lease bonuses and terms. You can also look at their lease forms.
Very grateful to all of you who took the time to direct me to various places to educate myself about this little piece of land I inherited. Before, I had a vague idea that it was somewhere near Pecos, TX. At this point, I could drive right to it, have a picnic and point out who owns which well within a reasonable radius. The research paid off very well and I’m pleased to report that I spoke with the landman this afternoon and we agreed on a bonus of three times the amount originally offered. I couldn’t have done it without all the information I got reading these forums, so thank you all very much!