I know to those of you in the "know" this may sound like a silly question, but I am a bit confused. In January of 2013 we signed a lease with Antero in order to lease area in Tax Map 12; Parcel 24 in the Meade District of Tyler County. The 120 days has come and gone and we have not received any payment. Recently we signed two leases simultaneously with Noble and one of those leases also states that it is Tax Map 12; Parcel 24 in the Meade District of Tyler County. I just realized this when Antero sent another lease for us to sign (Tax Map 14; Parcel 1) whiich we have already signed and mailed back an agreement to Noble for the same stated area.
Is it possible that these two companies are unaware of each others' leases? If they are the same, since the 120 days have come and gone as it pertains to the lease signed in January, can we declare that lease "No good"?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Hopefully all is well and these are not the same properties.
Yes it is possible that the 2 companies are unaware of each other's leases. I have seen an instance in Ritchie of Antero and EQT trying to lease the same people, and when the EQT landman was asked about it, he said that Antero is their rival.
If you can get to the courthouse, you can check on what is filed. With these companies leasing so much, sometimes they (maybe for business reasons) don't file leases for months. Meanwhile the other company doesn't see a lease filed, so they go ask for that property to be leased.
About the 120 days, I have read something about a 10 day grace period. Was it 120 business days or just 120 days?
I have read about states out west, maybe Wyoming, where there is a "race to the courthouse" rule, and companies go out and get leases, sometimes on the same property that a rival has a lease on, then whichever company gets to the courthouse first and files, has the valid lease.
So, maybe the Antero lease is out of date and void, and Noble gets that one (if they file and pay). And maybe vice versa with the other property.
Thank you so much Nancy! I really appreciate your input. My Order of Payment says "120 days", no mention of business days. THis go around with Antero has not been very organized. We have other leases with them and did not have much difficulty. This time, the landman called and said he was mailing a lease to look at the next day. Two weeks passed and we did not receive it so I called him to let him know that we did not receive it, just to make sure it was not lost. The Landman said, " Well shoot, I guess I should have done that myself ". Two more weeks passed and another phone call reulted in him telling me that his Administration forgot to mail. it. I more or less forgot about it then last Friday it arrived. Our address was incorrect on the documents and it in no way resembled what we had talked about on the phone. The very next day, the same contracts were delivered by overnight shipment. Each time with Antero we have been contacted by adifferent Landman which is fine, but this last one was a bit too disorganized for even me!
Tonya, you will get even less or no contact from them once you finally get payment. I may have missed it in a previous post but, could you share any details on bonus and royalty figures. This gives us the latest amounts for future negotiations and helps others.
I recently drove out Rt. 50 on a fishing trip and I was, to say the least, amazed. Once I got between Ritchie Co. and into Doddridge Co., It was like a wall to wall of oil/gas related vehicles. Everywhere you look a staging area or pipeline or excavating co. Brine trucks were all over and backed up at rt.18. Man, I am thankful I do not live out there. I can only imagine how those residents out there are dealing with all that goes with this new "boom".
Dt is absolutely right, it's extremely hard to have a meaningful conversation with the lessee/landman after the deal is concluded, they are so OVER you. Better talk about anything that needs talking about before they have your lease.
I'm late to the party, but I thought I ought to share my two cents.
The 120 day grace period is time set out in their OOP so that they can have time to verify that you are the actual owner of the minerals. In other words, they might, and sometimes will, go out and have someone run the title one more time just to make sure they got things right. If it turns out that you don't own the minerals, or you own less than they originally thought, they'll react accordingly.
That's not the only reason for the 120 day grace period, though. Sometimes they're watching the market and watching how wells in the neighborhood of your property come in. If things start to look bad, they might not pay you at all. In that case, they'll never send you a check. The 120 day grace period is a weasel clause. It lets them get out of a lease they don't want to be in. Chesapeake did this in Marion County a few years back, and got a number of owners very upset about it.
Antero's business model right now is not that speculative, though. When they lease you, it's because they're prepping for a rig to come onsite within a year or so. I'm surprised that Antero would fail to pay.
Regardless, that lease they didn't pay on is no good. You can shop that property around. If Antero comes on your property, get in touch with me and we'll go a few rounds with them. They messed up. It happens sometimes. So far I've heard mostly good things about Antero, so they'd probably be pretty decent to work with in this situation.