We were contacted by a company wanting to top lease mineral rights in Mountrail County, North Dakota. The agent told us it wasn't worth as much as it used to be because Hess was moving out of the county. Does anyone have any knowledge of this?
Ronald:
I haven't read anything about Hess pulling out of Mountrail County. Articles involving Hess appear to hint that Hess plans to increase it's activity in the Bakken in the future. This individual may be using this as a "ploy" to convince you to lease at a lower rate. Ask him to provide written evidence to back up his statements. Hess was one of the early players in the Bakken and I can't see them vacating a county with a proven production. My advice is not to top lease to anyone, instead, let your lease expire. I believe that your negotiating power will be stronger with an expired lease. How many Net Mineral Acres do you possess? This is another factor which is very important in negotiating power. Be sure to do your homework in regards to the current bonus rates in this county.
Mr. Mollet, Mountrail county is a large piece of real estate and values vary from being among the most to some of the least desirable mineral acres in the state. If you are in a good to excellent area, what Hess does has little to do with the value of the acres because the other 15 plus operators, independents and investors aren't going anywhere. If you are in a good area it shouldn't be hard to get a second, third or even fifth opinion. Do you know what production around your mineral acres is like? Production from wells around you is a fair indicator of what your acres could do and their value. If you will give the legal description I would be happy to tell you the production from surrounding wells and if you are in a good area there will be at least a couple wells and they may well have a couple years of production history.
Hess has a PS change in for all BL-Bakken in Williams for ten wells per 1280 … If your in that Neson anticline south of the river lots of worth. If you have uncommitted acreage why would you want to lease any of it. Title is the most important part of the whole oil business, why incomber it with a RI when you could have a WI? How many acers?