Jerry, I am not sure about producing close to you, but overall Blaine County is a very hot and active area. In fact, Continental and Devon are drilling in Sections 17 and 25 of Township 16N, Range 13W. I hope you will keep your minerals, DO NOT SELL! Check the Blaine County forum for discussions on what is going on in the county.
Thanks Larry I figured that would be your answer. It seems to take them 2 years to file a completion report. I think I will email a complaint to the OCC and see what type of response I get. I made a complaint on some royalties being held under suspense that we had proved belong to us as heirs and the oil company was holding on to. About a week after the complaint and the OCC calling the oil company we received a check. It would help the royalty owner to know what is happening around him so he can make right decisions about leases etc.
I hope I may call you Michael? Michael, I’m not here to defend Kevin; his content that he posts is solely his problem, as mine is mine. I do think that it is best to be a wary, greedy mineral owner and protect yourself. I have friends whose only offer came from Chesapeake. It turned out okay in the end, but not without a lot of worry and aggravation, and way more time than it should have taken to get paid.
With such a hue and cry about Chesapeake’s actions, I’m just saying that you should not let them have your executed lease until you have a check, and if you bargain for a royalty free of post-production costs, get a lawyer’s help to make sure that is what you get. I have lived near wells and haven’t had a water problem from fracking, but I have had water quality problems from farmers’ chemical fertilizer runoff from their fields into the drinking water supply. Maybe the farmers should be forced to stop farming?
Michael, you couldn’t offend me by any comment you made about Al Gore. I think he is just a tool of a special interest group. Michael, sometimes my humor doesn’t come through also; when that’s the case, I sometimes sit back and tell myself, “Wow, tough crowd.”
Don, good points all. Unfortunately, the courts have determined that the mere chance of future royalty is enough consideration to perpetuate a lease, so if you give anyone an executed lease and they record it, they do not have to pay you money until you sue them. Also, they may try to use your recorded lease as an unpaid option, for while they recorded your lease, they could say the recording was in error and they intended to release it of record. The sticky point is value could rise, a well could even be drilled, and they could claim that the deal was sealed by the recording, with the consideration being the chance of future royalty. Basically, the lessor has bound your interests and has the option to pick it up at a later date, at will, until they voluntarily release your lease or you bite the bullet and sue them. The bottom line is to not let the executed lease out of your hand until you have a check or other instrument that gives you recourse, not a draft, order of payment, or bill of exchange of the type that landmen usually tender as payment. Much better to be safe than sorry.
Don, FYI about discussion we had yesterday about Continental’s drilling in Township 7N, Range 6W. They have a current intent to drill in Section 32, Township 7N, Range 5W, Simms 1-32H.
Don I also forgot Continental is pooling in Sections 13 and 24 in Township 7N-Range 6W.
Thanks Richard
Kevin - Would you care to make a few comments about your experiences with “crooked”, as you style it, companies that have wronged you? You have an audience here and I am sure they will be interested in what you have to relate.
I have mineral royalties in Blaine County leased to Continental (14-16N-13W and 11-16N-13) and have received several offers to purchase royalties. Does anyone know if there are any producing wells in the area?
Jerry, I have royalty in Section One, Township 16N, Range 14W, Dewey County. This section is just west of the Blaine County line. CR completed a well and started producing on July 2. First tests were 156 bopd and 2.1 million cfpd of gas. This should be close to you. We have not received a check yet, but they have told me we should get division papers soon. The section just north of it has a producing well that was completed in February last year, the Irwin well. Our well is the Trook well. You can find mention of it on the CR website under the May 2011 quarterly report. My advice would be to hold on to your rights. Larry
Thanks for the info. I will hold on to the minerals.
Larry, how did you first learn what your well was producing? Myself and Michael H. here on the forum currently have Continental rigging down on our wells, one in Grady County and one in Stephens County. Any way we can check on progress? It seems like over the last year or so, to find out about Continental’s production is to wait on their quarterly reports and hope they mention your well.
I first found out what the well was producing in the August QR of CR. It was mentioned in May report as being drilled in record time. It has never been in Tulsa World or listed on Corporation site yet as being completed. The well just north of us (Irwin) completed last February finally shows up on Corporation website as completed. I called CR in early November to check on division papers and also asked about production and they told me. Last week the person I talked to said he did not have that information. In early November they told me they had sold first oil July 2. They have to pay 12% interest after 6 months but sure would be nice to see first check. I live about 200 miles from well site so last time I was there was Memorial Day weekend. We were just lucky to be mentioned in the quarterly report or would still not know.
We have interest in two wells in Dewey - one is called the Saratoga (Continental) and the other is the Hatter (Devon). When I called both of these companies and asked for a status report, they both gave me the information I needed. Sometimes you need to call more than once to get the right person.
Mr. Hutchinson, I have been following what Kevin is saying and ran across an article I don’t think he copy and pasted here, that named him as one of the people who ran title for one of Chesapeake’s shadow land companies in Michigan, where he was instructed to fail title for any typo whatsoever, or even if the property has a mortgage. Chesapeake had no problem leasing my property I had in Texas with a mortgage on it, through Red Sky Land. I have also been following Chesapeake’s mode of business in ND. I’m no tree hugger, but I would recommend that you get a check, not draft, order of payment or bill of exchange, before you let Chesapeake have your executed lease. My credentials as a non tree hugger is that I wish loggers could cut the old growth forests in an intelligent way to let some new life grow, create jobs, lower the cost of construction materials, meaning more people could afford homes, which would mean that more would be built, which would create more JOBS. I think it would be good all round. Al Gore made $90k from letting his property be logged, why isn’t it good enough for others?
Yes. When we leased we had no idea of the play and should have held out for more but maybe they drilled sooner. Anyway eventually we should get a check. Hopefully well is good enough to merit more drilled in the Section.
Now I am in Texas and I am deeply involved in the exploration business. The RR Commission of Texas forces the producers to file timely and I mean timely reports. They have two months to do so.
This laggard reporting scheme overseen by the OCC seems to lack anyone with a whip (i.e., enforce existing law on the books). Direct complaints filed by numerous royalty owners, if of enough volume, might get some reaction.
Don, Kevin may or may not have a legitimate grievance against Chesapeake but apparently he is aligning himself with the “socially responsible”, tree hugging, Al Gore loving, global warming, Ben and Jerry’s eating, anti-fracking crowd! I think all he knows how to do is copy and paste.
R.W. I too have read the articles that Kevin has posted and have no reason to doubt his side of the story. I was merely pointing out that his latest link was to a website that appears to be anti-fracking which is probably not the best way to get the attention of us greedy royalty owners. It even shows a nasty looking glass of water that I guess is supposed to represent the water that has allegedly been polluted by fracking. I agree with Don, if Kevin has something to say he should say it. My comments about Al Gore, treehuggers etc. was just my lame attempt at political humor and not intended to offend anyone.
That makes 8 wells either drilled and completed, permitted, or pooling in the township. Will that H.E. Bailey Turnpike cutting through the NW corner of the township cause any problems for companies trying to drill wells there?
Richard, how many wells are either complete or in some stage of planning in Township 6N-Range 6W? I believe if you sequence one more township to the SE you get into the area NW of Lindsay that has had deep drilling for over 50 years. I know, I worked a bunch of those wells on the wrong end of a pipe wrench doing that nasty fracing. Funny, I don’t remember TV cameras showing up when we did those wells. Maybe the mud was too deep to get their TV van into the location.