We own mineral rights in Haskell County OK and have been approached to sell by a third party. While researching the offer I discover there is a well being drilled where our minerals are. We were not contacted by the operator drilling the well while they were requesting approvals and making notifications because they used an incorrect address. I notified the responsible landman for the operator of the error and provided the correct address. Now there is a pooling order but we are not listed in the pooling order. We contacted the operator to ask why we were not included in the pooling order and was told we were not listed because our interest was being held by production. The operator has contacted us since to advise they made a mistake in the drilling title opinion so our interest is not being held by production.
Consequently their leasing broker offered a lease at the same rates as is stated in the pooling order. We have not responded to the lease offer.
We contacted the operator to ask if they intended to amend the pooling order and they said yes, that they would be doing a cleanup order to cover our interest. It's been nearly a month since this communication and we have not been notified of the cleanup pooling.
Now we've been asked by the operating company to submit a revised PPLA and they will honor it.
What are they doing?
At what point are they trespassing?
If your address was filed correctly the blame is on the operator. You may want to farm out or lease to a third party.
Thanks Tom.
What are our rights since we are not listed on the pooling order? Are we still bound to the deadline stated in the pooling order?
Third party lease rather than with the operator?
Vernon, if you could provide more info, we could look at any Corp. Commission filings. If you were told of pooling order, do you have the #? Also if you would list the legals we could see the Permit to Drill and the spud date, etc.
The pooling order will have the name of the attorney representing the operator, with name and number to call with any questions. It will also have a listing of all the respondents including those with "address unknown". If you are not listed, you could look for familiar family names. We did have an instance in a probate where someone in the county clerk's office made the mistake of not indexing the transfer on a tract. That fp royalty in every check is a bit of a sting.
I'm still wanting to know if we have any legal leg to stand on to demand other than what's in the pooling order since we have not received any of the required notifications nor the pooling order.
The operating company has told us we were not listed on the pooling order because our interest was being held by production but have contacted us since to advise they made a mistake in the drilling title opinion so our interest is not being held by production. They have offered a lease at the same rates as is stated in the pooling order.
I'm still wanting to know if we have any legal leg to stand on to demand other than what's in the pooling order since we have not received any of the required notifications nor the pooling order.