Daniels County, MT - Oil & Gas Discussion archives

Thanks, Lee. My wife actually called the Shale office in Scobey and spoke with Leigha. She would not even acknowledge that Shale is even related to Apache (which we know it is), and would give no contact information for anyone.

Thanks Eastern MT.

Joel appears to have left the forum, he was most active in the Bakken shale forum. I went back about 25 pages in the Bakken shale forum under county groups to when Joel was very active and see my replies, Zeb Glubs and Charles Mallory’s replies to Joel but Joels posts are gone. It is a loss to the forum. Sorry to have sent anyone on a wild goose chase. I think I will miss Joels advice on “C” and “S” Corps when I actually start getting paid for the other 75% of my minerals. When I searched Joel just now, several Joels did come up, when I went to the second page I could see the replies that I and others made to Joel. I guess this should be a lesson, if you think you may need it quote someone if you can, print or copy it if you can’t. Once again, Sorry for the confusion.

Sorry about giving you a bum steer Marty. I thought that would work. It brings to mind that quoute" oh what a tangled web we weave".

does anyone know what the difference is that some with Shale is being paid by bank drafts and some with personnel checks and would it still take 10 days to get your money sent to your bank per bank draft. Seems bank draft would be a lot faster than 10 days.

Patti it is hard to know what is going on with Shale. Just making an educated guess after observing what they are doing, it is likely the company (and/or individuals) are having serious financial problems. The majority of their leases were structured so they had four months (90 business days) to pay for their leases. By their recent actions it appears they can’t come up with the money to pay on time. Hence they’ve delayed paying on the agreed dates, and in other cases are requesting additional extensions of time before paying. I don’t know what their problem is. There may be another answer. However this is not the sign of a healthy company.

Patti, I am not understanding. Did Shale send you another draft for half of the amount? Patti, you do realize that a bank draft is a collection item and has no value except in the contingency that the issuer of the draft decides to pay? I have had 3 bank drafts and none of them were ever honored. I at least hope you mean that they sent a bank check/cashiers check. In any case a half payment wouldn’t be making me feel warm and fuzzy at this point. If you accept half payment the only thing you could do to force the payment of the other half would be through legal action. I hope the half payment was at least $50,000 so it might cover the legal action needed to get the other half. I doubt they would send you half unless title passed the test and if title was good, the only reason to pay half and not all is they don’t have it, or they are trying to pull a fast one limiting their exposure to poor well results as they don’t need to fear a lawsuit from the average mineral owner who won’t spend $50,000 to collect $10,000. Dad gave me some good general advice, never accept half payment.

Was very shocked as today was my due date and to my surprise they sent half payment by bank draft. Am due to get paid the balance next month . So looks as though Shale is working at getting everyone paid.

Or patti, they can tie you up with half payment while they wait to flip your acres to someone else and then they may send you the other half but I wouldn’t call that a sure thing. If Shale sent you a new draft, the draft would probably have a new waiting period on it or it could be a simple sight draft that is to be paid immediately after your bank sends it to their bank. Patti, a draft is a contract, be sure you agree with all terms of the draft before you sign it.

I have followed all the comments re; Shale. I am feeling greatful that I was contacted by a different company early on…ran the lease offer past a lawyer, I had it adjusted just a bit, signed and everything was setteled in a very timely fashion way last June. Everything was on the up and up along with a fair offer and yr. option. The way Shale is treating people is not good. I hope you all eventually get what you deserve.

Seems funny. So far things have gone smoothly for us. Hubby talked to a lady in Texas last week who said that since we had a Bank Draft that the money would just be transferred on or before our date which is January 8. They never said anything about mailing.

Do you know if there is any update on Daniels County/Apache? We (family members) were offered a lease from Shale and let it pass. There has been no further communications on behalf of Apache since the changes. Curious to know if anyone knows of recent activity/news. Thanks, and Merry Christmas.

r.w. Kennedy–I apologize for not making myself clear --Have three separate leases . I got paid on 2 of them and they said I may be on the next list of people to get paid has been running about every 2 weeks some get drafts and other get personnel checks. Thanks again for responding.----I all so heard that they(Apache) was getting ready to start another well not certain on where .

I think it is a misconception to think Apache and Shale are one in the same . They are two entities that had a business relationship , but are seperate companies. They obviously did a business deal together in the past but that does not make them one and the same. JMO

That’s all it said. Just a rumor, with no additional info.

Planned Apache Wells: 36-47-Sec. 34 multi-lateral

                                 36-48-Sec. 18 multi prospect Bakken

Confidential Apache Wells: 36-46-Sec. 24 same pad

Rumor - “not looking good”

This is info from Rocky Mountain Petro Journal

What does that mean? Rumor - “not looking good”

Are they not finding anything?

billy bob jim burl would not use a dangling preposition. i, now honestly feel that this is a shale name. however, steve, living north or buttes, it looks good to me, and since you are suddenly active from oklahoma to n. dakota as of nov. 4, i would guess you too are a landman trying to drive prices to your benefit. i hope i’m wrong but i feel this web is infiltrated with moles.

These wells will produce huge, modest, or no amount of oil. Regardless of that production, or lack thereof, Mr Kennedy is correct;

  1. Apache needs time to drill several wells across the acreage.

  2. Apache will stay quiet about results as long as possible.

So while it’s natural to be curious how it’s going, it will be next summer before anything is released. Then we’ll only get a glimpse on the initial wells. To adequately sample the 300,000 acres will take much longer. If it’s a complete bust, we may know by about this time next year. For now, Apache’s activity, or lack thereof, is our only indicator.

If you’re waiting for Shale’s lease payment, just insist they pay you as agreed, or return your lease. They made a deal. They must honor their deal or end it. Their is no incentive for you to grant them any extension or permit delays in payment. Again, there may be huge, modest, or no production. The well results aren’t at issue. If you signed a deal, honor it, and hold them to that same standard of honoring their end too.

If the wells are decent they try to keep it quiet just as much as if the wells were bad. Many people get offers to buy their minerals under a good well ahead of the information of whether the well is good or not. So far the wells drilled are just pinpricks on the map of over 300,000 acres leased. I think it’s going to be 2 years before you will have a good idea how this play is going to turn out. I think Shale has reached the point that they are as deep as they they want to get without more information otherwise they would be finding the money to pay for the acres wherever they had to find it instead of stringing people along. I think Shale is using the unpaid leases as options so the price is capped until they can find out how the wells will do. If you get a dozen good wells with no poor ones, Shale will scrape the money up somewhere to pay you the price negotiated before anyone knew whether the wells would be good. I think if you have an unpaid lease with Shale that you have nothing to lose and something to gain by cancelling it. If it really does turn out the wells are poor, Shale isn’t going to pay you. If the wells turn out good, Shale or someone else will lease you, but this time they will be negotiating for acres in an already producing area which can mean higher prices. You don’t have to be a math whiz to see that.