In doing research I discovered an old lease that had a 15 year termination if no production. Upon further investigation I found that drilling and production did occur prior to the termination date.
A D/O was never issued to our Aunt (owner). She probably forgot about the lease. Is there any recourse to get the lease corrected by current operators and past operators? Any ideas would be appreciated. Mike
It is more helpful if you list the state, county and well in discussion so we can look up the operator for you. She or her heirs can contact the DIvision Order analyst at the operating company and get into pay. Check the unclaimed funds in the states where she lived to see if the funds are in suspense. Depending upon the state, you may be dealing with different statutes on timing of funds being sent to the treasurer of the state.
Hello, the property is in Texas, Victoria County, abstract A-45 & A-67. The last operators I have are A-45-Geodominion & Ashland Exploration. For A-67, Golden Trend o/g corp. Thank you for the advice.
Do have the description from the lease? There are quite a few wells in those abstracts.
I see two wells with Golden Trend. There were the Frank Otto 1 and Frank Otto et al 2. #1 was drilled back in 1978. Only lasted 10 mo with very low production. #2 was drilled in 1979 and only lasted about four months with very low production. Close to Otto Road in the A-67 abstract. Hardly worth your trouble.
I see four wells by Geodominion. Scholvajsa Unit 1 (in A-562), Maraggia-Becker 1 (in A-562), Charbula Unit 1(in A-562?)-probably not yours,
Baptist-Dean Unit 1 (in A-45), was drilled in 2002-so not sure that is in your time frame. Lasted until 2007. Small gas well. Might have something worth looking for.
Have you looked on www.TexasFile.com for her name on other leases?
If there was production on the properties prior to the 15 year limit wouldn’t that make the properties active and the lease valid for future production royalties?
Martha, I have been on Texas File and did discover other leases which I am working on. It seems that land people or title lawyers are NOT doing due diligence in locating royalty holders.
My understanding from the leases we had with term limits was a productive well or wells would only extend the time limit as long as it was productive. If one well was productive and then another was drilled and continued to be productive, then our lease continued into the second term. When the last well ceased production, the term lease expired.
Based on your reply. As long as as production is occurring the 15 year term starts over with each productive well? A continuous timeframe of the 15 year term starts over?
Usually with a lease there is a primary term during which lessee can drill to establish production (here apparently 15 years) and then the lease continues in force as long as there is production from one or more wells. It would expire when there are no longer any producing wells. Then the mineral owner would be free to sign a new lease.
The 15 year does not start over. The lease only continues as long as there is production. Sometimes we have completely lost a lease (and sometimes acreage because the deed was time limited) because a single vertical stopped producing. Sometimes we have kept leases (and acreage) because vertical wells were drilled and produced and then horizontal wells were drilled before the vertical well that kept it going stopped producing.
Thanks to both of you for clearing this up.