Hello Friends,
First time post and wanted to thank all the folks working hard to make this site a great resource for mineral owners. My questions today is concerning an old oil and gas lease my mom Susan Kay Root, signed on September,15th 2008 with Baytech, LLP covering lands in Pecos and Reeves Counties. I have inherited these minerals and signed leases. At some point Patriot Resources became involved and now all my mail comes from Carla Petroleum Inc. Dose anyone know anything about these companies and why new companies keep getting involved. My second question is what sort of compensation should I receive if any for signing an amendment to an oil and gas lease? Would all the folks involved in this lease be required to sign the same docs from Carla Petroleum or would this be an opportunity to have your oil and gas attorney respond with a counter to the amended lease sent by Carla Petroleum. My last question is if anyone here can recommend a good oil and gas attorney in or near Reeves County to review these amendments and make sure I'm getting the best possible deal and being protected. Attached are the amendments. 06251501.PDF
Thanks to all!
Jason
Jason,
Congratulations!! In all likelihood, your mineral value has appreciated by a factor of 80++ since the leases were signed in 2008 thanks to the production technology that has taken place in the area since then. As a bonus, you may own the surface as well. Take care of it.
You didn't mention the amount of royalty payments you have been getting recently, but assuming they are quite small, you should not consider signing the requested lease amendment until you get an independent determination of the lease status. You could find out that the lease or leases are no longer valid for the depths recently made valuable by horizontal drilling. You can bet that Carla knows the current value so should you before going forward.
At a minimum, you have an opportunity to find out the value of what you inherited going forward including new leases adaptable to horizontal drilling techniques. Once you know the current value of your inerals and surface, there are lawyers in Midland that can make sure you get what is coming to you.
Incidentally, if your inheritance was associated with the L. Jay Root Royalty Trust, please send me a personal message. I managed it from 2008- 2011. It is now in a family owned LLC.
Gary L Hutchinson
Gary,
Thank you so much for taking time to reply. Any information I can gather at this point is extremely helpful. I am going to try and find a good attorney in that area to get and independent determination of the lease status. Hopefully the attorney will be able to find out the total value of my minerals and land. Thanks to you I have some sort of direction. I appreciate that sir! I do not know anything about the Jay Root Royalty Trust but I find the Root name interesting.
Jason L Watkins