Flora:
Mr. Mettler, who is a landman for Onshore as you know, is working for Vintage Petroleum. Vintage is a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) and was a separate company bought by Oxy a few years ago. Vintage is the Oxy entity that has been taking leases in the Monterey shale play, which is where your Fresno property is located. Your property appears to be located near the Coalinga field. This is a “hot” location right now.
In my opinion, $40 per net mineral acre is low. I would ask for $100. If they give you this, however, you will likely not get a paid-up lease as this would likely be over the amount that they are approved to offer for a 5 year paid-up lease. I don’t understand your statement “(200.00 per net mineral acre paid in advance for five years),” however.
Again, in my opinion, the 1/6th is low. I would ask for 1/5th and agree to 3/16ths if they counter-offer.
Hope this helps.