I believe if other wells are within a certain distance–and said distance may vary according to each field’s rules but may be several hundred feet laterally and to all depths vertically–of your property, you would be entitled to your share of production after payout, so you might want to check that. How will you know that the proposed lease guarantees that you receive royalties from the other eight wells and inclusion will not be an optional decision by the operator? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, so maybe unleased mineral owners present accounting headaches and slight legal risks to operators. Ask the landman if as a signed owner you will have to pay for any ongoing post-production expenses. Look up posts in this forum and elsewhere regarding the difficulties of achieving cost free lease language. Just because the lease may have the words “cost free” or “free of costs” does not mean the operator will not be allowed to deduct post-production costs. Can deducted costs make a 1/4 royalty a de facto 3/16 royalty? And what if the well under/near your minerals is the best one over the sweetest spot in the development and the other eight are more marginal? Lots of variables to consider. It might help if you share the block and section numbers and the name of the oil company/lease. Good luck and I look forward to seeing other responses in this thread.