Curious if anyone has ever gotten Interest from oil companies on past due Mineral royalties? If so what did that process look like, and if you could share what kind of situation it was.
Continental has been ghosting me for months via email, and suddenly decided to respond to just me, not the chain with my lawyer that had sent a “demand letter”. They now are blaming it on me providing “a bad address” when they lifted it off of the deed of distribution after everything I have ever actually provided them had been sending it to my Moms address as I knew she wouldnt be moving. And on top of that if they had sent it in a timely matter it would had been forwarded to my new address anyways, so this to me feels like neglect on their part in doing their due diligence in getting this done in a timely matter, as they have had my email address attached to this issue since January this year.
Realistically just seeing how big of a pipe dream getting interest on top of the royalties really is.
Yes, about a year ago, Mack Energy was very good about paying interest on mineral interests that were incorrect and owed us interest on about 6 months worth of payments. So it can happen and good luck.
Several years ago, Conoco-Phillips completed a well on a lease with me in North Dakota. The division order was very complicated due to the number of owners and their lease records person admitted that they were swamped. It took them almost 18 months to get the DO worked out. In the first payment, i received $3000 in interest. I did not have to ask, they just paid.
What state are you talking about? In Oklahoma interest is required by law for late payments. The interest is supposed to be paid automatically, but quite often I’ve had to write a letter quoting the statute. Have always been received the interest.
The interest due depends on circumstances, such as exactly when you notified the operator of your change of address. Create a time line of the all the correspondence dates. Then you can pinpoint the date that the interest calculation should start. Sometimes owners will file a notice or affidavit about an address change in the county deed records so they can be found. It seems odd that the company did not respond directly to your attorney’s email.
I have been trying to get interest from Longfellow Energy for a couple of years. Unbeknownst to my wife, her brother, and her mother, they drilled a well in Atoka County in 2011. They finally contacted her brother in 2024. Her mother died in 2021. They’ve had the same mailing address for 50 years at least. No excuse for not making contact. We asked for interest when they sent the catch up check, asked for interest and sent a copy of the Oklahoma statute when they sent the next check and still nothing. That many years I roughly estimate the interest would be as much as the catch up check. The well pays very little now and they send a check once a year. Would it be worth our while to send a letter from an attorney?
Did you demand the interest in writing, certified mail? I believe there’s a statute of limitations. If you aren’t beyond that, it might be a good idea for the family to get an attorney to send a demand letter on their behalf.
Yeah the whole email they sent rubbed me the wrong way, just felt like they were trying to cover up their mess up. Not playing that, I am having my attorney respond to him, their whole premise of us giving them the wrong address is BS, if it was an issue then my cousin would have been paid by now and I would be the one having to track the payments down as they had sent his W9 right when they sent it to him meaning they had correct addresses they just chose not to do actual work, also if it was an issue then they should have responded to the other 12 emails I had sent previous to this. And the DO Analyst choosing not to respond to my lawyers first initial email gives me the feeling that he’s trying to skirt out on the possible interest owed. Both of my lawyers and my landman said this is situation is not like anything they have seen, and I’m not gonna back down because someone refused to do their job, Montana State code (where the minerals are) mentions dispute over who owns the minerals as a reasonable reason not to be owed interest, but they have known about the interest being in my cousin’s and I’s names for well over a year by this point.