Hi Elizabeth,
My paternal Grandfather, George Ness came from a family of a dozen living siblings. George Ness passed when my father was three: I would not be surprised if one of the siblings was Arne. My father's brothers were Roy and Vincent.
Thx for the valuable information
Elizabeth Sullivan Hogg said:
Laurene - We have acres very near yours - sections 10, 14 & 15, and 24. We have an offer from North Plains for $550 per acre, 4 years, 3/16 royalties. A friend with acres in the same area (Dennis Kohlman) says he's inclined to wait and see if things get better. In any case, we would not sign a four lease, and want 4/16. So we're going to wait awhile.
My mother was Vivian Johnson, daughter of Charles and Bertha Johnson of Hanks. I think I remember her talking about the Ness family. Was there someone named Arne?
I agree on that "4 years" - - not a hot spot yet.
But I understand that we are sitting on two oil producing strata: Bakken and Three Forks?
Thx, Laurene
Spencer N Oland said:
Hi Laurene,
I'm a grandson of Dave Hought out of Hanks. He left his family mineral rights and we've been receiving a trickle of royalties for a couple of years. We are in areas north and south of Hanks. I just signed for three more years on two leases at $400/acre. The area isn't one of the hot spots, that's for sure. I guess I'll just have to be patient and hope for the best. I still hum the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies though. :-)
If Newfield is divesting its interests in Mineral Rights in our area; I wonder if they have sold to another oil drilling Company?
Laurene
Its all reverse psychology, as the area is underlain by the shale layers.
The Bakken formation is a layer cake, with five oil-bearing layers amongst nine total layers, all accessible from the original Bakken formation down hole, when needed.
The top two oily layers, the Middle Bakken and Three Forks 1, currently account for most of the Bakken’s production.
https://oilandgas-investments.com/2013/energy-services/bakken-oil-t...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/digging-deeper-bakken-three-forks-140...
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/article_368dcb38-53ef-11df-a6c8-001...
I am surprised that there is not more hollering about there being such a waste of natural resources from flaring gas, but there are not sufficient pipelines to get it to market. You see the map showing the night sky being illuminated here-
http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/events/department-news/1154/why-are-night-...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mindylubber/2013/01/18/what-americas-oi...
Laurene, Newfield has some wells that I think will be profitable near you, they will just take longer to pay out than the companies like. 72,000 barrels in about 3 years for one well and and 76,000 barrels oil for the second in 2 years 8 months. With field pressure and production decline, these wells might need another 2 years to break even and start paying. These wells don't produce alot of gas and it appears that not a bit of it has been sold, all flared. Lack of infrastructure is part of the problem.
I personally don't believe your acres are bad. I believe the operators are shooting themselves in the foot in these areas with low field pressure and drilling a 10,000 foot lateral well where the latter 1/2 of the wellbore produces little when they have to install a pump. They need the 10,000 foot lateral for the landgrab, not because it's going to efficiently produce the minerals. Because the pull of a pump at the end of 10,000 feet is lessened by every drop of oil, water and whiff of gas produced near the pump, you have alot of wellbore that will not be very productive but costs just as much to complete as the part of the wellbore that is productive. The solution is simple, 640 acre spacing, but that won't help the operator with the landgrab.
Laurene, I hate to say it but you might be waiting awhile until they stop just grabbing land and start thinking about efficient production.
Laurene, if they are not selling to another operator, you can bet they are trying to as hard as they can, who else would buy their leasehold if nobody is going to drill it?