Does anyone have any information on activity in this section?
Pooling happens when an operator(s) cannot get all of the owners to agree to lease either because they cannot agree to terms or cannot be found. The Ok Corp Commission has set up rules which allow an operator to go to court to pool the remaining lease holders after a majority have been leased. The company has to petition the court and tell them the amounts that have been offered in the nine section area centered on the section in question and telling which zones they plan to drill. The court then gives the unleased owners several options of bonus and royalties which are relevant to the area. You have about 20 days to decide what option to take. If you do not decide, then the highest bonus and lowest royalty are chosen for you. Most of us chose the highest royalty and the lowest bonus. If they cannot find an owner, the money is held by the operator for three years and then turned over to the state to unclaimed funds. The company then has 180 or 365 days to drill the well to the proposed zone(s). If the well is productive, same thing. Royalties are held for the "lost" owners for them to claim. A vertical or horizontal well can be pooled. If the well is dry, then the acreage is available for leasing again.
Bonus amounts are private and competitive. The only ones that are public are the pooling orders. Each mineral owner negotiates their own private lease. The leases are filed at the county courthouse, but the bonus amount is not listed on the lease. There are millions of mineral owners, so no way to capture that data since it is not required. Over the years, there have been various places that attempted to list the bonus amounts, but I always found them to be way too generic and usually not close to what I was offered. At the moment, this site seems to be the best place where folks voluntarily share.
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So Martha, the “majortiy” is the amount of acres, correct? If it was spaced on 160 for example, and you got anything over 80 you could “pool”?
That statement is misleading.
Was just wondering if there was any drilling going on in this section?
In theory, the operator needs “majority” to pool the section. But is not always the case. This is the wild wild west in McClain.
Are you sure that is true?
I have heard various percents over the years on what the percentage of control is to be able to pool. I seem to remember low 60’s. However, recently, I have seen requests to pool by more than one operator in the same section, so obviously they both can’t control more than 60%. Does one of our local experts have the exact number?
Here is the quote from the OCC Basic Information for the Oklahoma Royalty Owner guide from April 2017. P 5. "Any person or company owning the right to drill a well within the unit may propose the drilling of a well. The company will try to reach agreement with all the other owners within the unit (does the owner want to lease to the company proposing the well or does the owner want to join in sharing the cost of drilling the well and thereby own a working interest in the well?).
If an agreement to develop the unit cannot be made with all the owners in the unit, the company can file a forced poling application at the Cmomission. Under Oklahoma law, forced pooling provides a process under which the Commission ssets the options fr participation when owners cannot agree on unit development." … Guide continues on.
Looks like if you have one acre (?) you could pool, but probably not worth the expense and legal fees. I seem to remember that a teacher in one of the classes that I took a few years back said an operator usually won’t do it unless they control the majority due to the possible protests and costs. Hence my “majority” comment.
The pooling post was in answer to another question in another topic. I accidentally posted it here as I had two tabs open. Good discussion.
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Back to the original question.
12-8N-4W.
Yes, there is a possible pending well. EOG has three pending applications at the OCC for a horizontal well. 201804291, 92 and 93. Here is the file for 4291. Type in the case number in the proper box and you can see the others.
http://imaging.occeweb.com/AP/CaseFiles/occ30089045.pdf
That is my understanding, and a 1-acre unleased royalty owner can file a pooling. The operations of the unit will likely go to the company that has the most leasehold in the unit.
The mineral owners of the unit would much rather have a competent operator being in charge of the section instead of a random person who just wants to “try the system out and see what happens”. So would the OCC, so they are judicious in their choices of operator.
Thank You for your help.