Based on your own personal experiences, how long did it take your oil and gas lease to be negotiated and finalized when using an oil and gas attorney? Months? Years? Mine is taking forever it seems - 6 months. Perhaps I have an unrealistic view of the timeframe that is involved.
Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.
Captain Skittles
Texas
One location 45 days… the other 4 months
Is the attorney the one negotiating for you with the oil and gas company? My experience has been that It really depends on who you are trying to lease to, a broker or the actual company who may drill, how soon they want to lease, how far off you are between their offer and your counter-offer, etc., etc.
I have been working on leasing since last year and am personally dealing with two separate companies. I anticipate that I will be able to work out acceptable terms with one of them in the next 30 days. If not, it may be many more months because I am not in any hurry. I have an oil and gas attorney who I consult with as needed.
Captain: It varies. Typically about 30 days but I have gone 4 months when I was not happy with the terms. In my case I negotiate the basic terms and then turn it over to my O&G ATTY to craft, modify and negotiate the important provisions such as cost free royalty, pooling, pugh clauses, surface protection, etc. On the 4 month deal I was stalling, knowing other Operator’s would soon be leasing in my area. Sure enough I had another offer that was much improved. Having two or more Operator’s wanting to lease makes it easier to negotiate the better terms.
Thanks for the responses. I had left all negotiations up to my attorney; however, I found out that he was not returning the land person's phone calls at all. He calls it "strategy" ; I say in order to negotiate you got to talk to the other party so everybody knows what each other wants or needs. His strategy never got that far and frankly, I'm thinking I should have negotiated the bonus amount, term, and royalty percentage then turned it over to him for fine tuning the lease provisions. If I even get a deal after all this I will be very surprised.
It sounds like your lawyer is trying to get paid for doing nothing. Possibly he expects to get a modest increase in what you were offered so he can say his strategy worked, where negotiating may bump it up a couple times. Since he is doing nothing, there should be no billable hours. I doubt you signed a suicide pact with the lawyer and you should be able to take over negotiations again, in your place I would. I would also seek offers from other companies and investors to get the best deal. Has your lawyer done that? I think not. It is the landmans job to get you signed, but as long as he thinks you are only dealing with him, he’s not worried about losing the acres. If you don’t want to negotiate a lease then you may want to hire someone who has more experience in negotiating leases, who isn’t a lawyer. Good luck.
Captain Skittles said:
Thanks for the responses. I had left all negotiations up to my attorney; however, I found out that he was not returning the land person's phone calls at all. He calls it "strategy" ; I say in order to negotiate you got to talk to the other party so everybody knows what each other wants or needs. His strategy never got that far and frankly, I'm thinking I should have negotiated the bonus amount, term, and royalty percentage then turned it over to him for fine tuning the lease provisions. If I even get a deal after all this I will be very surprised.