2nd seismographic request

I was approached in Nov. by first company to survey. They doubled the price per acre

when the check arrived.

I was contacted in March by second survey company and I replied about the 1st

company having contacted me previously and for more money per acre. Today I received

a phone call from the 2nd company raising the amount of money per acre to match

the first company and requesting I sign and return the form I have had since March. How

many survey companies can check out your property? This is small acreage west of

Moulton in Lavaca County. Two wells are currently being drilled across 1680 from my

property.. any input that will tell me what is happening?

As long as you haven't granted exclusive rights to survey your property, both companies can do so. Check your first agreement to see if you granted exclusive rights. If it ever comes up, you don't want to grant an exclusive easement for a pipeline either, if someone else wants to run a pipeline across your property the first company will be getting paid for it instead of you.

I'm not sure I understand the situation. Did you sign an agreement with company #1? Did you give them exclusive rights to shoot your property? Are we talking about 3-D seismic shoots on your property? Assuming this is the case, you might want to learn what will happen to the data after it is shot. Will it be in a library for oil and gas companies to look at for potential future prospects? Is the survey company being specifically hired by an oil and gas company that will want to then interpret the data to see if there is potential production with a view to eventually making a lease with you? When will the data become available for other companies to look at?

We had 1800 acres shot (with a one mile halo) many years ago with a stipulation (a signed legal agreement) that the data remain exclusively in the hands of the operator(s) as well as ourselves, so that we could privately show it to potential Lessees in the future. This may have worked in our favor for a few years, but it became a huge problem, especially regarding ownership of the data. The oil companies that paid for the shoot (not cheap) were bought out by other companies, the legal agreement was obscure, and in the end, no one would lease our property for fear of being sued, especially after having their legal departments peruse all the documents. When oil and gas companies would go to the seismic survey company that was hired to do the shoot, all they would see when looking at our property was black space. Even though we had the 3D seismic data in our possession, we had companies that refused to even look at it (must have super computer) because they feared being sued because of the looming question--who actually owns this data? It took me (and others) seven years to finally get this data available in a libary where oil and gas companies could look at it. It was slow, tedious, and involved countless hours of work, phone calls, emails, mounds of paperwork, and hitting more than a few brick walls.

In conclusion, I agree with others on this board that it is very important to have one's mineral acreage shot because if it is not shot, there is nothing to look at to determine if there are any potential prospects. But, it is your property and you should know exactly what is going on, who are the players, what all is involved, will someone have exclusive rights to the data and if so, who? for how long?

Please keep us posted. Thanks

one thing to consider and your post doesn't say... is whether you have a mineral lease in place or not. i wouldn't let anyone seismic without having a lease in place.... $30-$60/ac is pretty cheap vs what EF lease bonuses are going for.

I do have a lease since Dec. 2011 and after reading the four pages of the lease agreement, the only information I can find with

wording of "exclusively" is under "Paid up oil and gas Lease" - in consideration of a cash bonus in

hand paid and the covenants herein contained, Lessor hereby grants, leases and lets exclusively

to Lessee the following described land, hereinafter called leased premises. Before I call

Seitel in Hallettsville, I wanted as much info as I could get from those of you who are

more knowledgeable. I do appreciate all comments and will keep you posted. Thanks



r w kennedy said:

As long as you haven't granted exclusive rights to survey your property, both companies can do so. Check your first agreement to see if you granted exclusive rights. If it ever comes up, you don't want to grant an exclusive easement for a pipeline either, if someone else wants to run a pipeline across your property the first company will be getting paid for it instead of you.