I'd like to start this group to see if other mineral rights owners are experiencing the similar issues I am with this company. I don't want to turn this into a complaint discussion, but I am looking to find others who also have problems with them.
Based on my research Briar Oil and Gas was created in March of 2017 as a LLC. The only name of an individual I could find was Craig Taylor as the principle. Then in early July BP transferred 325 wells they were operating/owned to Briar. Of these 325 I own royalty interest in 5 and have for the last ten years. Previously Penn-Virgina, Unit Corp, and finally BP had operated these wells. Through out there have been occasional errors in the monthly revenue statements, but for the most part all previous companies had rectified the problems relatively quickly. The wells have produced natural gas rather steadily if not in huge amounts.
I was concerned with such a new company taking on so many wells with no apparent employees other than the principle. Obviously he was contracting the boots on the ground labor and back office work out. But the first two months production in July and August 2017 seemed almost perfect. Better in fact, under BP the production had fallen as the gas prices dropped and there were some months I didn't receive a revenue check because it fell below the $100 minimum amount they would cut a check for.
But then I received my September production statement and I noticed a well was missing. That well had always been a steady producer, but I know that sometimes wells break down and it may take several weeks to put back in operation. Then the October production statement came in and another different well was missing, but the previous missing well was back. The new missing well had frequently broken down before, so again I let it go.
Then the November production statement arrived and I knew I had a problem. The September and November production statements were exact duplicates of each other. I did some more research on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission website and noticed other issues with the production volumes listed for these five wells for July thorough Nov. July and Oct volumes were exactly the same. I placed a complaint through the website and received a response that same day that I was correct in my assessment and they had reported the problem to the operator for correction. Within two days the volumes for July had been corrected and now matched my July production statement.
The biggest red flag was that all wells for all those months did show production, including the two wells that did not show up on the September, October and November production statements. But none of the amounts reported to OCC for September, October or November matched my revenue statements.
I also checked the Oklahoma Tax Commision website for the listing of gross production volumes reported for these wells. July and August are there and match my revenue statements, but the September production is missing the same well missing on my statement and no amounts are given for October or November production. It is well beyond the deadline for reporting those production amounts to the state and it appears that Briar is delinquent for October and November and possibly for the one well's production in September.
I initially called Extex Division Order Services as directed for revenue inquires and they could not explain why these two wells were missing. They did give me a telephone number to Craig Taylor, whom I called the next day. I had to leave a message, but Mr Taylor did call me back some 24hrs later. I explained that there seemed to be a problem with the production reported for all three months. He seemed concerned and had some information in hand, but wanted to check with some other sources. Could he call me back in a couple of days? I agreed and I waited for three days. No callback.
Finally after the third day I called him back. Had to leave a message again, but he did call me back in about 24hrs. I asked him what he had found out. He seemed unable to give a convincing reason, other than possible this, possible that. It was obvious he had not checked on anything. I was polite, but firm in telling him that I did not accept any of the possible reasons he was giving. I expected him to find and correct the errors.
He called me back later that night and seemed to have a different track to take. The gist of the response was that since I had gotten so much more revenue in July that I should be grateful and that he wasn't going to back charge me for November when it appeared I had been overpaid. I advised him I had no problem paying him back the $5 or $10 he had overpaid me in November because someone had simply copied September's production into November's. As long as he corrected the major underpayment in September and October.
He huffed and stalled and finally said he would contact me in a few days. A week later I had not heard back from him.
Please post your experiences with this company. Good or bad.