Well disappeared from pay stub

Hello:

I post a few questions per year here and always get great help, hoping this board can help again.

My mother was getting royalties for a Clay 1 well in Sec. 14 of Roger Mills county (14-14N-26W) up through Oct. of 2018 from Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. It was a gas well, as they listed BTUs for it. Then Clay 1 mysteriously dropped off the Kaiser-Francis pay stubs, but to my knowledge we received no indication of who may have bought this well, and at the time I didn’t notice that it dropped off the pay stub and didn’t check if it had been plugged.

I recently did a thorough search of all wells in our records and thought I found the new owner of Clay 1, FX Energy Operating. I talked to “controller” Jeanne Mason for FX Energy, she confirmed my mother as owning interest in Clay 1, and sent a division order that would put her in pay status, which my mother signed and returned. That was Dec. 2022, and we have heard nothing from FX Energy Operating since.

I didn’t get a sense of competence from FX’s controller and it didn’t help that the first DO she sent had a completely wrong address for my mother, a city in California instead of her correct Kansas address. Now I’m wondering, given all the different iterations of well names, if my mother actually owns interest in the Clay 1 well that FX now owns. FX lists the well as Clay 1-14. Very confusing!

I am getting better at looking up well info, but am not great at it…could anyone let me know if the Clay 1 well that Kaiser-Francis owned up through 2018 is in fact the same one FX now owns? And if it is, how much has Clay 1 (or Clay 1-14 as they list it) produced for FX since they acquired if? That would tell me if my mother should receive back pay for the well from FX.

By the way, the latest email I sent to [email protected] came back with a one-sentence response: “The Owner Relations Team recevied (sic) your email, please allow 60 days to process your request.” (This was from the same controller I mentioned earlier.) What kind of BS is that? Never before have I seen an oil/gas company announce to an interest owner they are going to “put them off” for that long. Seems like a bad omen.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Angela

@Angela_Havel, yes, the Clay 1 or Clay 1-14 well is the same well, API number 35-129-20546. Note that this well was transferred again on March 14, 2023 to White Goat Resources, OCC operator 24425. There are some old records of gas production that show 9313 MCF for 2020 and 8513 MCF for 2021. The OTC production site shows no production for the last 12 months.

That timeframe is frustrating but not that unusual. Just stay after them. Make sure that they have a W9 to speed up the process.

This post is not legal, tax or investment advice. Reading or responding to this post does not create an attorney/client relationship.

Pete:

Thank you very much for the information! Could you tell me how to look up who owned the Clay 1 well in 2020-21? We didn’t receive any royalties for the production during those years. Maybe it was producing during 2019, too.

Angela

Richard:

I jumped the gun a little posting that, because I heard back from them today, 24 hours after I sent the message. Thanks for the info, though! I’ve been lucky I guess because the oil/gas companies I’ve dealt with for the past 10 years or so have all been prompt in replying to my phone messages and emails.

Angela

@Angela_Havel. Here are three links which sometimes provide useful information: https://oklahoma.gov/occ/divisions/oil-gas/oil-gas-data.html Although many of the data downloads are now being phased out.

OKimage The form 1073 entries can trace the ownership changes.

http://wellbrowse.occ.ok.gov/ For current information and sometimes some old production data.

Best guess, Kaiser Francis transferred ownership to FX Energy in August or September of 2022. Kaiser Francis is probably the best source of information for what happened in 2019 to 2022.

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Thanks again, Peter! I had an email ready to send to FX about possible back payments owed to my mom, but was waiting to see when ownership changed from Kaiser-Francis. I will contact Kaiser-Francis and hopefully get the mystery solved. Strange that this well dropped off our royalties because we still get paid for one other well from Kaiser.

I already use the second two links you gave, I’m just not that well-versed in wading through all the info or doing specific searches, so that’s when I come here for help. I haven’t ever accessed the first link–will check it out now and bookmark it, even though they are phasing out some data.

I will remember from here on out that form 1073 signifies ownership changes at OKimage.

Great info! This board rocks!

Angela

My family owns minerals in this section and used to receive royalties from Kaiser-Francis. I believe the last production from the well was August, 2018. I requested a release of lease from Kaiser-Francis, who said they could not do that because The Hefner Company held the lease but had worked a deal with Kaiser-Francis for KF to be the well’s producer. I requested and received a release of lease from The Hefner Company in August, 2019, which is recorded at the Roger Mills county clerk’s office. The well’s rather ratty equipment is still sitting on site. My understanding is that the surface owner would like to have that equipment disappear and the surface restored to its natural state or for a new well be produced. But his efforts through the OK Corporation Commission didn’t result in OCC support to get the equipment removed.

James:

Thank you for this additional information, very helpful! My understanding is that FX Energy just transferred the Clay 1 well to White Goat Resources (in March 2023) so who knows, maybe White Goat will do something with the well in the future.

Angela

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