I hired Bass Law to notify 11 producers in 8 separate counties in Oklahoma regarding the fact that although I have clear title to and have notified all producers of my whereabouts, they will not, nor have they paid ANY royalty payments to me for over 10 years. Bass Law heard back from the only two producers who are paying as they should. They claim they cannot take on my case due to the amount of litigation and costs associated with taking so many producers to court. I have nothing to pay those fee’s either. I need representation on a contingency basis. Can someone reading this PLEASE explain how these large companies can get away with this sort of thing? I am dealing with cancer, and trying to make ends meet, and am having trouble getting through to these companies who have sent me notifications and causes re proposed drilling and ongoing production where the royalty assets are located. I am continually getting ghosted by many of them. PLEASE HELP!!!
You may be able to do a bit of legwork yourself mostly for free.
Step One: Check the unclaimed funds at the OK county Treasurer’s office. The funds may be there.
Step Two: Is your name and current address properly filed in the each county courthouse where you have minerals? Is the deed, probate or other title info related to you also filed there? Most of counties can be found on www.okcountyrecords.com. Free to look. Small fee to print. I use the Advanced Search options.
Step Two: There have been so many mergers and name changes over the last 10 years that the operators that you thought had the wells are not the same or the wells may no longer be paying.
Go to the OCC well records website and check each description by section, township and range and look for form 1073 to see if the operator has changed. Also check the spacing of the wells from the permit and completion documents. Your acreage may not be in the spacing unit, so you will not get paid. If you are in the spacing unit, then send a certified letter return receipt to the Division Order department at the operator and inquire why you are not in pay status. If the well has a 1003, then it is plugged and abandoned. You may think you have clear title, but the Division Order title opinion may say otherwise, so the DO agent can help you with what they have.
Step Four: It is possible that although the companies sent out notices of drilling intent, the wells did not actually get drilled. Happens all the time. If you have the case numbers, then you can post a question in the county (See the Counties link above) and ask the status of the case and we can help you. Put the section, township and range and the case number in the body of the post. Do each county separately.