Remember folks, if someone is willing to pay you a $million for your mineral interest, they are expecting substantial return on their money, plus profit. There are reason why a person might want to sell some or all of their rights. And these reason are mostly specific to the seller. Investment asset and risk management is a tricky business. So if you are thinking about a $million deal, get advise from the person who has a fiduciary duty to you.
Mr Baca is running into folks who are not interested in selling because the common wisdom is not to sell. The potential additional income from holding is worth the risk. Because of the low price of oil, this is probably a great time to buy.
Can we expect a post by r w kennedy on this issue?
Daniel I have taken a moment to report you. You were asked nicely and yet you continue to “Troll”. This is for Owners not Trolls!! Maybe you, Paul Johnson and Scott Varner can pool you funds and create you own forum. You are in the wrong place.
I own two companies that are private and own leases in the bakken area. The income off them has been great until the price of oil dropped. They are generating sufficient income to continue operation but shareholder income has decreased. This to will change.
MaryAnne H Larson: I totally agree with your post, times are stressful on most with the lower oil prices. The good news is that it will surely come back, it is just a question of when not if.
And to Daniel, you can spin your “intent” all you want, but the good people of this forum can see right through you.
Just my two cents, Brian…
MaryAnne, There are always risk to more income. If not in a lease, you will pay your portion of the drilling cost, which on the average Bakken well is about $7K. If the well is a good producer and the oil price is high, you can realize more income as compared to being in a lease. But if something go wrong, the well is bad or the price of oil drops, it might mean a lot of money out of your pocket. Whether to lease or not is an important decision.
Sorry, I met to say $7K per acre.
Mr. Campbell offers good advice in regards to participating in a well (working interests). If problems occur with the well, you will participate in the cost overruns. If a pollution problem occurs, you could be named in a lawsuit. If the well is shut in for any reason, you may still be paying expenses on the well with no revenue coming in. I have been around this business for many years and I still think a great lease is the best way to go.
Mr. Baca,
If you want a piece of the Bakken, try the old fashioned way, earn it. Invest in or with the well drilling risk takers. You will find that they, along with the long time mineral owners have been paying their dues and taking risks in mineral rights since 1955. The Bakken was not scientifically understood until 1978, 30 years before technology developed to the point of making Bakken production economic. Most of the current mineral owners have watched their far sighted ancestors die with the gleam in their eye that a “payday” for the family was yet to come. The owners of today instinctively want to pass that tradition on. You can’t put a price on tradition and hope with a little arithmetic.
Occasionally, an heir’s view of tradition and hope may become murky by necessity and a sale takes place; usually to other family members. In my experience, Bakken area mineral sales are consummated by well financed industry buyers with a battery of geologists and engineers who are ready to recommend a fair price to management based on management’s plan for the long term.
The buyers in the Bakken know that offering a million dollars and actually paying a million dollars separate the wheat from the chaff. They do their homework and deal through iron clad purchase and sale agreements and never advertise or “Troll” for sellers.
“Greater Fools” a very few and far between in North Dakota. The owners are not horse traders, they are very instinctively sophisticated so if you make an “offer”, it better be a fair one and bring your checkbook.
Thank you Mr. Hutchinson !!
Hutch has said it all! I have never lived in ND, but my Grandfather had the foresight to hold mineral rights many years ago. It is now his legacy.
Let’s kill this dialog and move on. This is not the place for solicitation. It is for information.
Gary: Thanks for your input. Very well said. Hope others heed your advice. You probably saved others lots of money and headaches.
Here are my two cents for all they are worth, as I am sick and tired of these OIL wannabe companies LYING, CHEATING, STEALING, COERCING, and sending all of our oil over to the MIDDLE EAST, and the Bullshit war, based on all lies…People, please HOLD all of your Interests, do not lease, and call the SHERIFF of your county if you have any problems, or the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in North Dakota, as there has been the shadiest shit I have ever seen in my life happen in our once GREAT STATE of NORTH DAKOTA. Call the Governor, and tell him to get out of bed with Lynn Helms and the Oil Butt Pirates. Thank you and GOD BLESS…Jody
We have numerous wells leased to Kodiak and just discovered the Whiting acquisition. We cannot get a response from Whiting. Is anyone else having problems with Whiting or does anyone have any knowledge of the lease transfers?
Steven:
Kodiak Oil and Gas acquired North Plains Energy February 2012
Whiting Petroleum acquired Kodiak Oil and Gas effective December 8, 2014
as with all acquisitions, it is assumed everything pretty much stays the same, operations wise…
this is the contact information I was provided, as with ALL operators, they really do not like to confirm or deny anything on the phone…go figure.
www.whiting.com/owner-information
DivisionOrder.Inquiries@whiting.com
JIBOwner.Inquiries@whiting.com
REV.Inquiries@whiting.com
1099.Inquiries@whiting.com
Whiting Petroleum Corporation
1700 Broadway, Suit 2300
Denver, CO 80290
I hope this will help in some way to you, good luck Brian…
at least Kuntz has enough balls not to hide behind an alias
Does anyone own or know anything about UxBridge Oil. A North Dakota oil company
Daniel Baca, someone wondered if I would have something to say about your posts and I do.
If someone wants to sell, it’s their decision. I, and I don’t think anyone else here would want to stand in their way…as long as it were a carefully weighed and informed decision.
Yes, keeping your minerals includes risk that nobody will want them. This is a fairly well known risk that our families and we have been dealing with for 50-120 years or so. I think we have hashed it out in that time. You don’t gain a lot of respect by coming on here and giving the sweepstakes spiel about you may have already won.
I can instantly tell one reason why you want to hold property rather than cash. The US dollar has been devaluing at an alarming rate and one of the ways government may try to fix problems is to devalue the currency by about half and pay all debts at face value. An apple is an apple, a barrel of oil is a barrel of oil and it will be sold at market value no matter where the currency goes. Remember the stories of a wheelbarrow full of Lira to buy a loaf of bread? There is nothing that says it can’t happen in the US. I would rather own mineral rights than cash. Thanks.
When one talks about getting a better return on the money gained from the sale of mineral rights, just because you have a chunk of cash doesn’t turn you into a financial expert. Nor does hiring people who purport to be financial experts rationally equate to actually making any money on your investments and often quite the reverse happens. Also you didn’t mention the 15% CAPITAL GAINS TAX which is going to be a huge cliff to overcome before you could start making money on any investment with money gained from the sale of your mineral rights, not so? Reasonably safe investments right now are not beating the rate of inflation. Where is this good deal you are trying to help us into? I’m not seeing it.
Daniel, I hope you will forgive me for speaking the truth but you are just another person trying to operate OPM, other peoples money. You have nothing at risk in the deal. The money is not yours. You are trying to invite yourself to the table set for those who have something of value, minerals, and those who have money and wish to buy. Inviting yourself to dinner is bad form just about anywhere I have ever been and I have been a lot of places.
As an example, rather than starting your own website which doesn’t cost even $500 and allow people to come to you, you come here and violate the terms of service soliciting on this site. When you stop looking for something for nothing and actually bring something to the table, maybe you will be better received.
Thank you Ms. Barnes, I stand corrected. As far as I know we have always exported refined fuels and lubricants also which I didn’t mention.
Just a small correction. First tanker of LNG to come out of the lower 48 from the Chenier plant. We have been exporting natural gas in LNG form from Alaska to Japan for decades. Also, first shipment of sweet oil has gone out as well. Our refineries were built to handle the mostly sour crude that the US produced until recently. The shale oil is sweeter, so the refineries cannot handle it as well. Overseas refineries would be able to use it. So once the supply and demand get equalized, things will be much better.
It has been slow of late while I was away on the other side of the world with my bad internet connection. I am back in the US now.
First order of business is if you have held your minerals this far, I believe we have seen the worst that is likely to happen. Take heart.
The cost to drill complete and produce a well has come down drastically. I always knew the oil companies were overpaying for services by at least 30% and it appears that that was conservative. Top of the line Bakken wells that go according to plan cost 7-7.5 million dollars. I had one well that the operator, KOG claimed cost 14.5 million dollars when the paperwork claimed the cost overrun was about $60k. I am looking into that. Paying too much for services was why almost everyone said that Bakken production required at least $70 per barrel. This is no longer true. It is true that we won’t be making money hand over fist at these prices but they won’t be down forever.
A large part of why the price of oil is down is the fact that since the price of oil has fallen that US oil imports have INCREASED. There is a very simple reason for this. The BIGGS can still make a decent profit on imported oil so that is what they are doing. Foreign countries signed horrible oil leases because they needed the money, some repudiated those leases but many did not. It may cost as little as $20 per barrel to get that oil to the US, to many different points in the US since it is coming on a ship, and probably not going to a hub but more directly to a buyer so it cost less to move. It is also heavy oil which is better for plastics and lubricants which Bakken crude is not. Exxon reported making just under 1 billion dollars, down from about 4 billion the year previous. In their shoes would you rather earn 1 billion or would you rather take a loss? I don’t own their stock but if I did, I would want them to do exactly what they did and possibly more of it! As it is, I don’t like it but I understand it.
I won’t go deep into the geopolitical equation but we could have war in the middle east at any time. If it should happen, which I don’t want a war, who does? Would we ever be in a better position for a Mideast war than to be brimming with fuel?
About a week ago the US exported it’s first tanker of natural gas. It is an incredible pity that it happens now and not a few years ago when the price was 300% as high(Remember right after Fukushima in Japan?), but it is a start. From small things large things grow. We may even supplant Russia as the supplier of natural gas for western Europe. That would be a handful of years away if it happens but it would be a logical step from our prospective and Europe’s.
I am glad to be back and I look forward to weighing in on a few subjects.