I own just under 6 acres in a pool of 500 acres. I looked up the W-1 of one of the wells drilled since leasing my property. The part that says "Number of wells on this lease in this reservoir" has 20. I know that they have only drilled 3 wells since creating this pool about three years ago. The rest of them were already here. 1 is on my property but was abandoned many years ago but there are some in the pool that have been producing all along. I know this because I see the small pump jacks moving up and down and occasionally I see them getting serviced. Those wells are on a 213 acre lease out of the 500. My question is: Since that property is on the same pool as my property, does the oil produced from those wells get counted with the oil produced by the new wells? How can I tell? I am in the Guadalupe College Survey in Caldwell County Texas
I am curious to know how they keep track of these things because the check stub that I get shows 1 well number and the number of oil sold for the month. Any light shed is appreciated
This forum is full of answers to questions that people have. I am not asking for anyone to resolve anything for me. The question I have is simple. If existing wells are already on a property and it then gets pooled, do they fall in with the new ones or are they separate. This is a general question. If the answer is specific per situation then I understand that I have a unique situation. I am very naive and do not know anything about this business. I don't know why I would get lectured for what does not seem to be any different of a question from many of the discussions posted.
Adam, you should not be lectured. The "expert" that responded to you I believe notorious for being ill tempered and ill mannered. Likely from up north, if you know what I mean. I don't blame you for being upset. Remember there are often no ramifications to speaking rudely to some one when you do so in the safety of your own home.
I am familiar with your part of the woods. Forgive me, when you say "pool" I think you mean a pooled unit whereby different tracts containing different mineral ownership is combined into one unit and the division of interest in that unit is divided as a percentage of the whole. That would be unusual for your part of the world, as most of the wells in your area are drilled on as little as 2 1/2 acre spacing and are vertical, not horizontal. If I may speculate, you have been reading a lot about pooling and horizontal laterals, etc, on this forum and may simply feel if you see wells on adjacent land you should be sharing in the interest in those wells. Not true where you are. If you have only 6 acres you may have, or at one time had, one well, even 2 wells on that 6 acre tract that now do not exist for whatever reason. Your mineral interest would not necessarily have been "pooled" with adjoining acreage given the spacing requirements in your area. I hope this makes sense. Drilling permits in Texas can often be a little confusing and I am not sure I would take a lot of stock in what a W-1 says, the answer for you is in the courthouse and whether there is a "pooled" unit that includes you are some other form of unitization agreement you are not aware of. Its an easy fix in Lockhart, a clerk there will be happy to help you.
Actually, that hasn't been my experience at all. Most Texas clerks will tell you point blank that they don't have that type of expertise or do that type of research. Most will tell you that they don't do research period, and will most likely not be able to advise you in that regard.
I think this is the same non-expert who alleged that drilling rigs are safer than they used to be. The statistics as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics do not support that.
Mike, Thank you for the kind words. The 6 acres I have were pooled as you say. 3/16 interest for the 500 acres as a whole and 6 acres worth is mine. Not much in the scheme of things but what the heck. A few years ago before I was solicited to lease my mineral rights, I saw a pumper that had left the property across the street and asked him if he knew anything about the abandoned well on my property. I pointed it out to him because I have a large concrete block covering the open pipe. He said that he used to work that well but it had been abandoned back in the 80's. He said that it was only producing 3 to 5 barrels a day when it got abandoned. I covered it because I built my house on the property and do not like the smell of the gas that comes out. I have a map of the 500 acres pooled. and the property across the street is on it. I know that all of the old wells are vertical but the new ones are horizontal. So my original question remains.
Dave: I would hire an attorney but my percentage is so small that I cannot justify doing so. The general question I asked is mostly for my sanity and peace of mind.
The 500 acres sounds more like the gross acres on the original lease. I don't really believe that there is a Unit Designation filed covering that. Like I wrote before, it would seem impossible for anyone to answer your questions unless they looked at some paper, did some RRC and courthouse research, and saw what map you have and are referring to, supposedly showing a 500 acre oil unit.
Thanks for everything, I am sure that all is well and in order. My curiosity is the only thing that prompted these questions. I design cabinets and store fixtures. I like to know how things work. The terminology in the oil industry is too complicated for me. I will leave it at that. Well, maybe I would like to try to clarify what I called a map. It is a plat showing the location of one of the newly drilled wells. It shows a boundary of the 500 acre lease, and each tract with a number. Then it has a legend stating the name of the owner and amount of acreage for each tract.
It sounds like a divided location map with the 500 acres being comprised of different tracts or leases, as opposed to a 500 gross acre lease with undivided interests in the 500 acres. That what it sounds like anyway. If it was undivided, each owner would own an undivided interest in the entire 500 acres. It's definitely not a 500 acre pool or pooled unit. Someone would have to take the base leases forward and try to figure out what was unitized - if anything- both acreage and depths, what may have been released after the end of the primary term because of a Pugh Clause(s) etc...
RRC research would be required to check on the status of the wells.