Hello, I am an “oldie” and enjoy this forum immensely and it has very talented folks to answer questions. I have 13 wells in Williams County, ND north of Williston. Three more are in the works.
Last month we were given the opportunity to lease the three newest wells for 20%; these were our first leases as we participated in our first well in 2012 and then the remainder were non-participation. One of the NP wells was very close to recouping their expenses plus the penalty imposed when one does not participate or lease. We were not asked about leasing any other existing wells at the time of the three new ones, but soon found out that all our wells that had the Harbour name are now leased. This includes the one that was close to us getting 84% instead of the 16% we were getting. When I asked the landman why all the Harbour wells [7 wells] are now being leased, she replied “they are all being leased” with really no explanation why we weren’t asked about this beforehand. My siblings and I do not believe this is even legal. Anyone out there that could answer this or lead me to someone who could? We thought we would ask here prior to consulting our attorney.
Our other question is what determines the wildly different outputs of wells…During the past 7 months when oil prices were between $60.63 and $71.20, 5 wells fluctuated incredibly. i.e., One went from 85 barrels in Jan '18 to 1976 in March '18; another from 100 barrels in July '18 down from 2176 in April '18, another from 605 in June '18, down from 2037 in Feb '18. These wells have all been “healthy” with only minor repairs so the differences in outputs is very puzzling. Is this at the discretion of the oil company or what other reasons could there be? I realize this is a long and rambling question, but I trust this site as had good information in the past. Thank you so much.
Pat Maloney
Fargo, ND