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.