I hold a minor royalty interest in 160 acres in Wayne County, Illinois, which has or recently had 5 producing wells ranging in completion dates from 2008 to 2013, enabling the lease to maintain some level of continuous production. Although the legal lessor is a local Trust, the actual operator is the Mega Oil Co., Olney, Illinois. Effective May 01, 2014, a Chinese organization purchased Mega and registered it as a “Foreign For Profit Corp.”, complete with a resident Chinese management. In Nov. 2016, Mega suddenly placed all 5 wells on a temporarily abandonment (TA) status and have not produced any oil since. Only after my urging and thirty (30) months after this TA was initiated, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) finally issued an Aug. 15, 2019 complaint to Mega to either Plug or Pump; however, an additional 10 months has now passed for a total of 40 months without any real evidence of oil recovery. Why is the IDNR so reluctant to issue a request that these wells be plugged and the current lease terminated? Even more intriguing, why would the Chinese purchase a minor exploration company such as Mega and then terminate its main source of income?
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