Grimes County, TX - Oil & Gas Discussion archives

6th, I hear ya. They will do exactly what they think they can get by with when dealing with landowners.

To the group....attached is a link and story that outlines what Halcon's plans were regarding a seismic study in Grimes County and others this time last year April, 2013)

http://investors.halconresources.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=756542

Woodbine

As a result of the unveiling of the new East Texas Eagle Ford Shale play as a separate and distinct area, the Company currently has approximately 220,000 net acres prospective for the Woodbine in Leon, Madison, Grimes and Polk Counties. Halcón expects to spud 60 to 65 gross operated wells in the Woodbine in 2013, while spending approximately $390 million. The Company plans to keep three to five operated rigs active in the play throughout 2013.

Halcón believes it has defined the limits of Woodbine production at Halliday Field in Leon County and, based on internally developed on-going technical analysis, is confident that this area of the play has been de-risked. In an ongoing effort to increase operating efficiencies and lower well costs, full scale pad drilling is now being utilized to develop the Halliday Field. The combination of full scale pad drilling and underperforming wells drilled to define the edge of the field negatively impacted production by approximately 1,000 Boe/d in the first quarter of 2013.

The Company is currently evaluating other horizons within the play, and preliminary work suggests that a vertical drilling program targeting multiple zones may be prospective in Leon and Madison Counties. In addition, the results of a 330 square mile 3D seismic survey that spans across parts of Madison, Grimes and Walker Counties should be in-house and processed by the end of 2013. This 3D seismic survey is expected to allow Halcón to plan the effective development of a horizontal drilling program in this more exploratory area of the play.

Halcón Field Services ("HFS") continues to implement infrastructure solutions throughout the Woodbine play. A natural gas compression and processing plant operated by HFS has throughput capacity of 20 million cubic feet per day and is expected to be put into service this week in Madison County, Texas. Once the plant is placed into service, approximately 2 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production (333 Boe/d), most of which is currently being flared, will be processed and sold.

i thought HK sold alot of the properties. below from 2/26/2014 press release

also since 2013 is over does anyone know how many wells they drilled? I know the Johnson trust ones and the plans to drill alot there is not going on. Maybe the 3-d info came back with bad info?

The assets subject to the purchase and sale agreement include approximately 83,000 net acres primarily located in Leon, Madison and Grimes Counties, Texas.

According to this link, Halcon, even after the sale of 83K acres, would still have about 17,000 acres in the Eaglebine. I don't believe this amount includes the acreage still held by Energy and Exploration Partners (ENEXP) who partners with Halcon in drilling ventures.

http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/97543-halcon-joins-tms-flock

For those of you currently leased for oil/gas, is water usage a part of your lease agreement and if so, in your agreement, is it stated that the Lessee shall pay the Lessor for water they get out of a water well the Lessee drills on your property?

Captain

FYI my lease part about water wells and such. I would ponder if I only owned mineral rights would they have no access to drill a water well If surface owner had no minerals?

I own both so would I be able to sell surface and the covenant of this water well be a burden on the new surface owner?

10. Ancillary Rights. In exploring for, developing, producing and marketing oil, gas and other substances covered hereby on the leased premises or lands pooled or unitized therewith, in primary and/or enhanced recovery, Lessee shall have the right of ingress and egress along with the right to conduct such operations on the leased premises, or other lands in which Lessor now owns or hereafter acquires an interest, as may be reasonably necessary for such purposes, including but not limited to geophysical operations, the drilling of wells, and the construction and use of roads, canals, pipelines, tanks, water wells, disposal wells, injection wells, pits, electric and telephone lines, power stations, and other facilities deemed necessary by Lessee to discover, produce, store, treat and/or transport such production and other products from the leased premises or from other lands in which Lessor now owns or hereafter acquires an interest. Lessee may use in such operations, free of cost, any oil, gas, water and/or other substances produced on the leased premises, except water from Lessor’s wells or ponds. In exploring, developing, producing or marketing from the leased premises or lands pooled or unitized therewith, the ancillary rights granted herein shall apply (a) to the entire leased premises described in Paragraph 1 above, notwithstanding any partial release or other partial termination of this lease; and (b) to any other lands in which Lessor now or hereafter has authority to grant such rights in the vicinity of the leased premises or lands pooled or unitized therewith. When requested by Lessor in writing, Lessee shall bury its pipelines below ordinary plow depth on cultivated lands. No well shall be located less than 200 feet from any house or barn now on the leased premises or other lands of Lessor used by Lessee hereunder, without Lessor’s consent, and Lessee shall pay for damage caused by its operations to buildings and other improvements now on the leased premises, or such other lands, and to commercial timber and growing crops thereon. Lessee shall have the right at any time to remove its fixtures, equipment and materials, including well casing, from the leased premises or such other lands during the term of this lease or within a reasonable time thereafter.

Grimes County: Thank you for your response. I'm finding out that more and more Lessors are only charging for water if they take it from existing wells or ponds on the Leased Premises OR they do like you did i.e. deny them the use of existing wells or ponds, etc.

This helps. Thanks again.

Grimes County,

The surface owner owns the water rights unless they are specifically reserved by the seller. It would be difficult to sell a surface tract and keep the water and mineral rights. I sold a tract of land four years ago and retained all of my minerals, but agreed that no oil and gas exploration could be conducted on the surface of the sold property - only underneath the land by horizontal drilling. An oil well was later drilled and it was put on adjacent property with my minerals in the pool. I was happy and the buyer of my surface was happy. The sales contract and the deed stated these exceptions and when I leased the property, this restriction was in my oil and gas lease.

6Th

Let me ask this. If you own 100% of the minerals I can see you put a non surface drill site in your deed that will last forever. But would surface owner be able to get paid if they agreed to have a pad site on their surface? ( this might be a good way to increase the cost paid of pad to surface owner?) I mean are you going to come back and sue the surface owner or drilling company on breaking the deed clause? But if you owned 95% of the minerals and previous owner before you owned the other 5%. How can you prevent them from access to their mineral estate? I know a tract across from my land with similar restrictions except I think surface owner ( seller ) had no minerals. Since minerals are the dominant estate I cant see how a later person can put restrictions on them.

The reason I am asking is that I don’t know and thinking what would happen if everyone put in a non drill clause in their deeds. Will there be a day where no drilling will occur at all? If I own 2-3 acres I cant see that happening. But if you own 300+ acres and couple nbr own larger tracts and they do that, isn’t there a risk of never being able to get to your mineral estate? If I am 100% mineral owner am I running the risk of cutting my own throat ? And again if I am not 100% owner how can I prevent the other mineral owner from getting to their minerals? If they can put non drill clauses in wouldnt this lead to one day the surface owner having the chips to get some minerals 40 years from now?

In your case what would have happen if all your nbrs would put that clause in there next deeds or worse yet just deed it to their kids and insert that clause?

I also assume your minerals were not leased when you sold the surface. What would have happened if you were leased before you sold. As long as the lease was in effect would the nondrill site by null and void?

Don’t take anything wrong I am trying my best to understand the ins and outs of all this. I have learned a lot in the last 3 years and some I don’t like L like NPRI crap.

Grimes County,

The surface protection clause was strictly for the benefit of the buyer of my 50 acres. They didn't want an oil well on the property if they weren't getting anything out of it. They could probably waive this requirement if a company came along and offered them a good price for a surface location (if they changed their mind). I wouldn't have any reason to sue them for doing this as I no longer own the property and I don't care or have any say so about what they choose to do with their surface.

The mineral interest is the dominate estate. There aren't many people who object to an oil/gas well being located on their land, so I think that only a few would limit use of the surface under certain conditions. My minerals weren't leased when I sold my land, so a no surface use clause was no problem. Even though other undivided mineral owners under my tract didn't have a surface use restriction in their leases, my lease did. I don't know whether my lease overrode theirs or if the oil company took the least path of resistance and chose not to drill on my former surface.

If my minerals had been leased when I sold the surface, a no surface clause wouldn't have been possible. The buyer would have had to either buy the land and take a chance that no well would be put on their surface or not bought it at all. I suppose they could have negotiated something with the oil company. I am not a lawyer and my comments are merely my opinion.

I collect royalty on the horizontal well that was drilled on the neighbor's tract but that extended under the tract I sold. The oil company worked out the logistics when they planned their well.

You are overthinking about non-drilling clauses. I imagine they are few and far between and there aren't too many situations where someone would even want one.

6GT

Our family's first comment - hope we are doing this correctly...

Background:

My family's lease with Halcon contains a continuous operations/partial termination clause. Halcon did drill and there is a producing well. However, we think there are no continuous operations (as defined in the lease), and, therefore, that there has been a partial termination. In fact, another company has reviewed the production records and wants to lease the acreage/depth subject to the partial termination (without any warranty from the lessor). The other company does not itself want to contact Halcon.

Questions:

1. What is the normal procedure in implementing a partial termination, i.e., does the mineral owner usually contact the existing lessee to notify it of the partial termination, or, simply execute a new lease with a new lessee?

2. WRT to the new lease, are the bonus/royalty considerations the same as with the original lease, i.e., should one receive the same payments/percentage that one would receive if it was the original lease?

Jack, You should contact Halcon and request a release be filed on the free acreage. Hard to say on the second issue.

Thanks, Wade. Will contact Halcon with that request.

Jack, if Halcon releases the acreage, you are free to negotiate new terms with the new company interested in leasing.

Thanks, 6th Generation. Have contacted Halcon and waiting on a response.

Hello...I am looking to lease and/or buy 5-10 acres of land, preferably off a major highway or county road for the purpose of possibly obtaining a permit for a saltwater disposal well. Three (3) phase nearby would be a huge plus. Please text/call Tim Terry at 512-791-2499

Does anyone have any factual(not rumors)information on the actual going rate for recent oil/gas lease payments per acre in North Grimes County?

I received an offer from Shale Energy LLC to buy all or part of the mineral interest in a 91 acre tract west of Iola. There offer seems fairly generous. Does anyone have any idea what the value of such an offer might be? Also is there a rule of thumb used to make a counter offer?

Thanks

Chuck,

Is it Shale Energy, LLC or U. S. Shale Energy, LLC? I have negotiated with the latter, recently.

Best,

Buddy Cotten

It's Shale Energy LLC in Midland

Not familiar with them.

There are plenty of people who use multipliers, etc., to determine mineral right value, but at the end of the day, it is still a willing buyer and willing seller.

Buddy