Something new for me. I own a small interest of mineral rights in 27-9N-8W in Grady County. I received a letter from CGG this weekend asking me to give permission to conduct a 3D seismic survey but they had stated in Canadian and/or Caddo County, OK and not Grady. This makes me think they are not accurate in their research or are working in several counties and just did not get the right wording. Is this a common request or how should I interpret it? Do most people get multiple requests or ?? Should I consider signing it as it says they can transfer it on to successors and assigns. There is no mention of payment, etc.
To my memory, I have not noticed this topic before. Can someone who is neutral please advise?
If it is not the correct county, then respond back to them for clarification. They send out hundreds of letters and occasionally get them wrong. If one covers my acreage and is correct, then I usually sign them. Mineral owners don’t usually get compensation for them. However, surface owners can ask for some small compensation for crop damage, tramping through your acreage, etc. I got a nice little path around my pond when they shot over it. They needed to hack through the poison ivy to plant the shot holes, so they nicely cut me a path as compensation. Good trade.
Thanks for answering. Are there several companies who do this or should I just accept and sign a corrected version from the company who initially contacted me? Like I said, I just need to understand it. I am only a mineral owner - not surface- and don’t mind not receiving compensation - just wanted to know the common protocol since I had not heard about it before. I will contact them to set the county straight if you all think this is acceptable action.
Usually just one company shoots at a time. Sometimes, they have partners or sell their data to other companies. CGG is a big seismic company that shoots for other operators. Been around a LONG time.
Thanks so much. Is it more important to sign if you are a surface owner rather than a mineral owner? I don’t own the land so wonder why they need my signage.
The mineral rights have the dominant legal rights over the surface rights. They need at least one mineral owner to sign (from my recollection). The surface owner would negotiate damages separately.