My grandmother left mineral rights to the property located in Golden Valley County to me and four siblings. I was contacted by a gentleman about leasing our rights. He offered $125 per acre and a 15% royalty for a five year lease for horizonal drilling. Is this an acceptable offer?
Are they currently drilling in this area? I live in Washington State and am not familiar with what is going on at all.
I have been reading everyone's discussions and it seems that a oil and gas lease attorney would be a good thing. Can anyone provide the name of a trust worthy attorney?
Bonnie
My name is Mat and I work for various oil companies that do buisness in ND. Feel free to give me a call or email and I may be able to help answer any questions or concerns you may have.
We have some mineral rights in Golden Valley County and are wondering what the oil lease are going for in that area.
Also which companies are picking up leases in Golden Valley County. Please advise
I have not had time to do anything with these mineral rights. I really need to pay attention to this. I will try to keep you informed, please do the same.
Bonni
susan Laska said:
Hi Bonnie
We also have an offer on some mineral rights in Golden Valley ND. How did you come out on your rights ?
$125 per acre and 15% royalty is absurdly low for most anyplace within the Bakken/Three Forks area of Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana. There are plenty of fast-buck operators out looking for mineral owners who don’t know anything about what is going on there.
I will be willing to help anyone whom has questions or concerns on any of there mineral rights. I have been in the buisness for 8 years within the Williston Basin. Let me know if you would like help. 701-770-4216
Empire Oil called me this morning and said that they are offering $125 an acre and 15% royalty with a “shut in gas clause” and other clauses that I do not understand. What was your offer and where is your property?
BonniLee Ball said:
I have not had time to do anything with these mineral rights. I really need to pay attention to this. I will try to keep you informed, please do the same.
Bonni
susan Laska said:
Hi Bonnie
We also have an offer on some mineral rights in Golden Valley ND. How did you come out on your rights ?
Maybe we can chat about what you think is fair along with any advice you can give. You can call me if you would like 509-952-7311.
Hawkeye Spud said:
Bonnie and Susan –
$125 per acre and 15% royalty is absurdly low for most anyplace within the Bakken/Three Forks area of Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana. There are plenty of fast-buck operators out looking for mineral owners who don’t know anything about what is going on there.
We are not in the Bakkem Formation we are in the Willston Formation located in the middle of Golden Valley County. North of Interstate 90/94
We were looking at $150. per acre 15% royities for 5 years with shut in gas clause , which we declined.
Where are you located in Golden Valley ? They has been some activity near Bear Creek to the east of the county.
SAL
I was recently contacted by a leasing company. I’m in GVC, Township 140 North, Range `04 W. The initial offer made to me was for $125/acre and 15% for 5 years. I had no idea whether or not this was a good offer, so I gave Mat Ekblad (701-770-4216) a call. He was incredibly helpful in talking through the lease and the offer with me. I ended up with much better terms and some adjustments to the contract to protect me further by following Mat’s advise and recommendations. If you are not sure what to do with an offer that’s been made to you, I would highly recommend that you give Mat a call. He’s not looking for payment for his advise. He has a related business and is interested in what leasing is taking place throughout ND. Do yourself and your family a favor and give Mat a call and let him help you figure out what to do with your offer.
I was recently contacted by a leasing company. I’m in GVC, Township 140 North, Range `04 W. The initial offer made to me was for $125/acre and 15% for 5 years. I had no idea whether or not this was a good offer, so I gave Mat Ekblad (701-770-4216) a call. He was incredibly helpful in talking through the lease and the offer with me. I ended up with much better terms and some adjustments to the contract to protect me further by following Mat’s advise and recommendations. If you are not sure what to do with an offer that’s been made to you, I would highly recommend that you give Mat a call. He’s not looking for payment for his advise. He has a related business and is interested in what leasing is taking place throughout ND. Do yourself and your family a favor and give Mat a call and let him help you figure out what to do with your offer.
I don’t know an oil and gas attorney to recommend in that area.
I just want to put in a word of caution: be very careful about anyone who offers to lease your minerals or anyone who offers to sit down with you and go through your lease for free. It may not end up being free; you may end up being talked into leasing with the individual. Better to pursue leasing with one of the big oil companies who is drilling in the area rather than a middle man. Read Google’s Bakken blog and ask questions there about what the going rates are and who is leasing for what oil company. There are some very nice and helpful people on this forum–use them and thank them. Those who are anxious just for you to get in touch with them-proceed with eyes wide open.
BonniLee Ball said:
Mike, thank you for the advice.
Bonni
Michael Uetz said:
I was recently contacted by a leasing company. I’m in GVC, Township 140 North, Range `04 W. The initial offer made to me was for $125/acre and 15% for 5 years. I had no idea whether or not this was a good offer, so I gave Mat Ekblad (701-770-4216) a call. He was incredibly helpful in talking through the lease and the offer with me. I ended up with much better terms and some adjustments to the contract to protect me further by following Mat’s advise and recommendations. If you are not sure what to do with an offer that’s been made to you, I would highly recommend that you give Mat a call. He’s not looking for payment for his advise. He has a related business and is interested in what leasing is taking place throughout ND. Do yourself and your family a favor and give Mat a call and let him help you figure out what to do with your offer.
Does anyone have any inside info on the latest happenings in Golden Valley County? I was contacted and need more info. Does anyone have any scoop on what is going on in that area?
Areas dictate the initial prices for most leases. What do you feel the value should be. Give me your equation for putting a value on an Oil and Gas lease bonus/acre.
DG said:
Interesting how working interest owners (lessees) are treating their leasehold interests like mere commodities to be bought and sold rather than as interests that actually need to be developed in order to honor contractual obligations to lessors:
DG has no equation - but everybody knew that and that she would try to remove all trace of her post.
Interesting how DG deletes posts when confronted about something she wrote of which she knows nothing.
Please Ganske, answer the questions that Mat asked. We are all waiting.
Also, please quote the lease provision that requires the lessee explore on properties in order to honor a contractual obligation. In lieu of that, please provide the appropriate North Dakota state law or case law requiring exploration. We are all waiting for that as well. You will NOT find general language in lease forms in North Dakota that require exploration - not even in lease forms promulgated by the State itself.
Your postings and then the pitiful attempt to redact your mistakes without an apology are reprehensible and make everything that you write immediately suspect as to its accuracy or your motivation.
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
~~~~~ Abraham Lincoln
Mat Ekblad said:
Areas dictate the initial prices for most leases. What do you feel the value should be. Give me your equation for putting a value on an Oil and Gas lease bonus/acre.
DG said:
Interesting how working interest owners (lessees) are treating their leasehold interests like mere commodities to be bought and sold rather than as interests that actually need to be developed in order to honor contractual obligations to lessors:
DG=Debbie Ganske. Both from Minot, ND and both have a birthday today.
OK, You convinced me.
Jim Byrd said:
Mat,
DG has no equation - but everybody knew that and that she would try to remove all trace of her post.
Interesting how DG deletes posts when confronted about something she wrote of which she knows nothing.
Please Ganske, answer the questions that Mat asked. We are all waiting.
Also, please quote the lease provision that requires the lessee explore on properties in order to honor a contractual obligation. In lieu of that, please provide the appropriate North Dakota state law or case law requiring exploration. We are all waiting for that as well. You will NOT find general language in lease forms in North Dakota that require exploration - not even in lease forms promulgated by the State itself.
Your postings and then the pitiful attempt to redact your mistakes without an apology are reprehensible and make everything that you write immediately suspect as to its accuracy or your motivation.
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
To all: I recently noted in a message to another that I was feeling uncomfortable because my posts were being deleted or altered and because there were several members who swooped in like vultures upon unsophisticated mineral owners seeking to acquire their minerals. There's also the issue of the entire thread that disappeared without any explanation at all. I wonder how long it will be before this post or this thread is deleted? When speaking of boorish or reprehensible conduct, you should point the fingers at yourselves.
I couldn't access my initial account, so I made another account. Both times I made an account, I used my real name, my real initials, my real location, and my real birthday. Unlike others who use anonymous handles to post on this forum, I have made no effort at all to hide my identity. Nothing nefarious about that, despite your blatant boogey-man accusations. On the other hand, it does appear that Mat has several accounts--one using his real name in order to swoop in and to ask unsophisticated mineral owners to call him--and several other psuedonyms that swoop in to serve as his cheerleaders and references to assert how wonderful and helpful Mat is. (Just review the threads and the pattern will emerge.) Mr. Cotten portrays himself as the authority on the subject of mineral ownership and leasing and is very condescending to others who provide helpful information.
With respect to unsophisticated mineral owners, they do in fact look to their lessees to actually develop and drill for oil on the leased acres. There is no other purpose for entering a lease, and this is acknowledged by the ND Supreme Court when it favorably quoted the following:
"Such contracts are almost universally held to be made for the general purpose of developing the premises by the lessee, and the uniform tendency on the part of the courts has been to place such a construction on their terms as will carry out the terms, intent, and purpose of the agreement. The contract being executed for the purpose of procuring development upon the premises by the lessee the clause should be interpreted to mean that the lessee is required to do the drilling and that the act of a third party independent of any co-operation on the part of the lessee is not a compliance with the terms of the lease. A contrary construction on the terms of the lease would sanction holding the lease for speculative purposes which is in direct conflict with the primary purpose for which such a lease is executed. It is said in the recent edition (1932) of Thornton on Oil and Gas: 'An oil or gas lease cannot be held for merely speculative purposes. No lease of land for a rent for a return to the landlord out of the land which passes can be construed to be intended to enable the tenant merely to hold the lease for purposes of speculation, without doing and performing therewith what the lease contemplated. Such a construction would, indeed, make all such contracts, a snare for the entrapment and injury of the unwary landlord.'" Earp v. Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation, 27 P.2d 855,864.
Schank v. North American Royalties, Inc., 201 N.W.2d 419 (N.D. 1972).
There are many, many cases that say the same thing. A prudent mineral owner will guard against leasing his minerals to speculators. It is fraud, pure and simple, for a speculator to inform a mineral owner that its purpose in soliciting an oil and gas lease is to drill and develop the minerals when that is not the purpose. And yet, because the NDIC is establishing oversized spacing units over the Bakken Pool, this gives speculators vast opportunity to commit fraud. But for the oversized spacing units, the lessee would actually have to drill and produce oil from the leased premises or lose the lease. And I can see where the vultures would not want to educate the general public concerning this matter, but the vultures don't rule the entire world--only this discussion board.