Ms. Nolan:
Again, what Mr. Kennedy says makes a lot of sense. First, it makes a lot of difference as to how many acres you have and if you have 100% of your minerals. Yes, there are a lot to know before signing a lease and even if you know a lot and get expert help, everything doesn't always turn out perfectly; however, there are a lot of potential positives to signing a lease as well. If you have substantial acres and you own 100% of the minerals, you have considerable options; but, if you don't, your options are somewhat limited. If the later is true, then get your attorney to help you get the best contract you can and learn to live with it. If your mineral holdings are limited, then the oil companies have some options, that you don't want to test, available for their use, including, "non consenting royalty owner" and the MIPA (Mineral Interest Pooling Act). You definitely don't want to be forced into one of these two situations.
r w kennedy said:
Ms. Nolen, it could happen exactly as you suggest, they could get your oil anyway, you might not even get a royalty depending on the situation, your royalty could be fee'd to death and you wouldn't get a leasing bonus if you didn't lease. There are alot of factors, none of which you have told us that are important to understand such as how many acres you have, where are they in relation to the acres to be pooled? Are you drillsite/wellbore tract? Do you even know? Do they really need your acres for this unit or do they just want to include them so they can hold more acreage to make it easier if they want to add another well? All the bad things you talked about could come to pass and people are told about them all the time, the stick if you don't accept the carrot. The reason that your oil could be taken at no benefit to you is to protect the correlative rights of others, that there would not be a well without your acres, but that isn't necessarily so and I think it's extremely likely that you haven't checked to see whether it is so or not. They may not have to have your acres to make a well. They may just want to include your acres. When it comes to the stick, just telling me you have one isn't enough for me, I will check to see if it's long enough to reach me. They may actually need your acres and the stick could be very applicable in your case but, have you checked to make sure it is?