A few weeks ago, I received a letter from Vaquero resources saying that they drilled Headwell 1102 1-31 1XH, and they need my W9 so they can start paying me. Prior to this, I had no idea that this well existed or impacted me in any way whatsoever. So I been trying to research how the process is supposed to work for mineral rights owners. My understanding is that all the properties impacted fall into some sort of pooling, and a division order which determines what is paid to owners based on their acreage and whatnot. I also see that there are normally different options for owners to receive different royalty rates from negotiating with the drilling company. However in my case, clearly that wasn’t done.
Was I supposed to be contacted before they started paying me? What keeps the company from just paying as little as possible? This project affects a lot of property owners since it’s basically under a bunch of neighborhoods. I’ve called and emailed Vaquero and they never got back to me. I’m also not sure they’re incentivized to give me the information I need. I just want to make sure I’m not getting taken advantage of.
Vaquero drilled the Headwell 1102 1-31 1XH (Surface location in sec 1-11N-2W and going north into sec 31-12N-1W. The well probably has the perforations in sec 6-11N-1W and 31-12N-1W.
They were supposed to either lease you or pool you. If they could not find you to lease, then they would pool you at the lowest royalty. If your name and address are not properly filed in the county courthouse, then they don’t always look too hard to find you. Do you know if you have acreage in either of those two sections? Did you get any of the OCC mailings?
Looks like the pooling case was 2025-001602 (probably) or 2026-01748-T.
You do not have to sign a DO in OK in order to get paid, but you do need to confirm the decimal. Ask the Division order agent for the formula that was used to calculate your decimal. You need to know the net acres, the drilling spacing unit, your royalty and what percentage of the well was drilled in your section.
Use the magnifying glass above to search for “letter in lieu” to get an idea of a template form to use.
My name and address are correct and have been in the county documents since 2012. I am in the west portion of 31-12N-1W. I dug up some documents for 2025-001448, and my neighbors around me are listed but my name and address are not in there. I never got anything until the request for my W9 from Vaquero. I can’t find any document saying that there was any attempt to located the owner of my mineral rights. So far I have not been able to get any responses from Vaquero.
Have you sent a letter by certified mail return receipt to the address on the Division Order asking for the net acres, royalty and the equation used? You may have been held by production from earlier wells. Newey 2-A was still active in 2025.
I have not done certified mail yet, I was hoping they would not be so difficult to deal with. Interesting find with the Newey well. I knew they were there but never gave a second thought about them, as they are pretty old and small wells. I’ll have to research those more. It looks like Vaquero took over the Newey wells in 2024. Thank you for all the help so far.
Having similar issues with Vaquero regarding my minerals in Headwell#2. They never sent me any documentation until I received a cpooling check. The one conversation I had with them they indicated they were burdened with trying to find 700 mineral owners in that well. As you, my information was clearly filed at the courthouse and have never had any other company have difficulty locating me. I sent a registered letter back in May and left numerous voicemails and emails with no response to date. Once things get resolved, I will be invoking the production revenue standards act for the interest they owe for delayed payment. But it may be approaching time to pursue attorney involvement to get a response from them. Frustrating,
You’re the first person I encountered with the same issues. I’m really hoping that I can get things sorted with them without getting lawyers involved, but it doesn’t seem promising. I do understand they have to handle a large number of mineral rights owners in this area, so I’ll try bothering them for a bit longer since it’s just been about a month for me.
Similar here. Nothing from them until I got a letter from Trident wanting to buy my mineral rights (about 1 acre). Then started some research and have tried repeatedly to contact Vaquero and get exactly ZERO response. Maybe its time for a class action against them… Of course the actual value of the minerals has some impact on the value of the law suit…