My family has about 150+ acres in Louisiana. Excavation has been ongoing for the last 20+ years with several different operators; the latest is Adamas Energy. Many of the original family members involved in the leases are decease. We suspect royalties are not being paid accurately; the leases may even have expired. Also, some lease names were not vetted and shouldn’t be there. It’s a mess. County municipalities say many of the filed documents were not legal and have no warrant. Where should we look for legal representation to start fixing this?
Pull the production record before you hire anyone. SONRIS, Louisiana’s well database at sonris.com, shows every well with its operator history and monthly production back decades. Long idle stretches are where a lease may have expired. Louisiana also gives lessors a specific tool: written notice of nonpayment under Mineral Code articles 137 to 140. The lessee gets 30 days to pay or explain, and if it does neither a court can award double the royalties plus attorney fees. That letter needs a Louisiana oil and gas attorney, and the parish clerk of court holds the lease and succession filings they will ask for.
Adding to this discussion how can I tell if the lease is still valid? The second part of that is that I suspect other on this lease have a different lease, and that some partitions receiving royalties are not family members