My wife & I have land in Jack County that is leased to a small energy company for small drilling purposes, but they in turn lease our land to one of the major oil companies to drill the deep wells. Do we as land owner have any rights to the new leases except the royality payment if any? Can we share in any way with the money that is going to the small energy company?
Mr. Wilhelm,
The small company leased your minerals and assigned/sold the larger company that lease. The larger company has to explore and develop your acreage in accordance with the original lease. You do not have any rights to share in any money or royalty that goes to the small company for selling the lease. The small company may have reserved rights to the shallow zone they where after and sold the rights to the deeper formations to the larger company. That is just speculative though.
Jerry,
My family had a well in jack county in a shallow formation. They a ORRI with another company for the deeper formations with a 1 year time limit. The second company drilled a well. Now we get the 3/16 from the shallow well, like normal (according to original lease) and 3/16 from company with deeper well (per original lease). Be advised that the second company Unitized there well and the Unit Declaration left of half my acreage and combined it with other acreage/surveys.