I received an offer to lease and it’s been so long since this has been leased, that I have no idea how many net mineral acres I have, and also think I may have been left out of a lease from 2015 with a company going by Scr Near LLC. No idea. Tim Mitchell has a landman sending out new lease requests, and I want to get some info so I know how to amend this contract or just decline it. Never heard of the landman who is getting the signatures. Scott Oil and Gas, whose address listed on the lease offer is his home address, and he works for Tim Mitchell. Any help appreciated. I had a lawyer read the lease offer, and he was not much help, but charged me 200.00 to read it and highlight sections of it to explain what each section meant. However, no help on what I should do, except to say… “negotiate, it’s fun.” Ugh.
Anyway, anyone getting these offers? I might take a trip to Quanah I guess.
As far as I can tell there are only 2 operators/producers drilling in North Eastern Hardeman County… Buffco Production Inc. and Eagle Hydrocarbons. The targeted formations in that area are Chappel, Conglomerate, Mississippi, and Strawn. There are some older wells in that area that have been producing for 25-30 years.
Do you mind sharing how much the bonus money was per acre and how much the royalty percentage was? And how many acres do you have in this Section 31?
Generally the first offer of a lease is a low ball offer. If you have a lot of acreage it may pay you to have an oil/gas attorney help you or you might leave money on the table and wind up with a bad lease. JUST MY OPINION
GIS Map of Hardeman County Section 31/Block H/Abstract 499:
Uh yeah… especially since they only offered me 200 an acre. I wonder if it’s because you guys have more acreage?
Everyone should hold out for more on the actual royalty. And their contract is shite by the way. So many addendums need to be added by lessor. And the lease term is too long!!!
Also there are so many loopholes for them in the contract that without the right addendums they do not have to ever drill. They will hold the land and then the real oil companies will not be able to touch it. I don’t know if I would sign just yet. Just my opinion. Maybe we need to form a bargaining collective for Hardeman.
After checking all approved permits for Hardeman County since January 01, 2018 I find no approved permits for a Scott Oil and Gas. They may be a leasing agent… and they could possibly be a flipper looking to make some easy bucks from leasing you and selling your lease to either Buffco, Eagle Hydrocarbons, Triangle Three Resources or Interstate Exploration. This link is to 27 approved permits for Hardeman County from January 01 through November 30, 2018:
Thanks. I agree. I did more digging and Scott Oil and Gas is a newly formed LLC with a home mailing address. The people involved may have an old bankruptcy and the land guy works for another land guy named Tim Mitchell Petroleum. I called him about 2 weeks ago and he refused to say who his client was except to say they were international and a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. I do not want to deal with a flipper. And not with that awful contract they gave me. I sent back many addendums and clauses and heard nary a word since then. I may just pass on this until I can deal with a principal player. I think this is a bad deal.
So if they think it’s that valuable, should we just wait until we get an offer from a reputable company with a better contract? Is there a way to “market” to a reputable and legit company?
Be patient. There are some pretty good oil/gas wells being drilled northeast of Quanah. The oil companies/producers will find you when they need your acreage. Be patient.
Let’s keep in touch on this, as my sense after checking their background and my brief conversation with Tim is that they are not giving us anything close to a good deal. Your deal is better than mine, but I have only 10 net mineral acres, which might be why. I already rejected it and sent back multiple addendums and asked for more due consideration and a lesser lease term with no automatic renewal unless they had taken steps to drill a well. Well, I have never heard back. Extremely rude, so I am thinking this is a fishing expedition to see what they can get for pennies and they will resell at a high premium in a year or two to the highest bidder and just skim the profits.
If we could get others in this tract on this forum, we could get an even better deal by all being on the same page, I think. Also, by accepting their contract as is, it really lets them do almost anything. I personally don’t need the upfront bonus that badly and I do not really want to deal with newly formed “Scott Oil and Gas.” Also, once the contract is flipped, Scott O & G does not have any real responsibility anymore, and that leaves everyone at their mercy unless there is language in the contract that specifies that they cannot flip it without notifying the lessors and that they remain liable for terms of contract in some capacity.
I have 342 acres in western Wilbarger County (A-1496, A-1497) and it seems to be dead in that part of the county after Anschutz Exploration left in December 2017. Anschutz and Cabot Oil & Gas drilled 4 or 5 wells into the Barnett Shale east and northeast of Vernon and had problems with their completions. Anschutz got disgusted and left town. Although it seems Anschutz has had problems anywhere they have drilled. At the end of December 2017, Anschutz released several hundred thousand acres back to the mineral owners.
Maybe we need to form a bargaining collective for Hardeman.