I take it all back. Not only did ya'll provide some interesting feedback, but I went back and checked leases again. On 11/16/17 Jeter sold/conveyed 48 leases to something called National Landworks, who in turn assigned the leases to EOG.
These leases amount to around 4500 acres and run generally from where 957 turns north into Fayette County, north to about where the Wolters well is/was, NE to about the intersection of Billimek Road and FM 1579 (old Hwy 90), then south to the SE corner of Fayette County. Obviously there's a lot more acreage within the area I just described, so this is patchwork to say the least. In addition, I'm too lazy to see how much of this is contiguous and big enough to actually make a unit at this time, but it's of interest regardless.
<Update> I just went into Lavaca County filings and see that the same thing happened on the same day there.
Jeter/EOG leased in Lavaca county starting at the south side at Breslau, tracts are on the east side of FM 957 (since last spring the tracts across FM 957 on the west side were still leased by Penn..not now though). These EOG tracts run north northeast past FM 532 curving to the east, and then hitting Fayette county. The amount of these leases are huge...and this is suppose to be for chalk wells...and we are waiting....somebody has got to drill somewhere on this acreage soon...just the law of averages I would think....
I have mapped out most of this, and yes most of this acreage is continuous, ready for units..
I just scrolled through the Jeter to EOG document for Lavaca County. There are 562 leases, so I'll try to skim through to see which Surveys they're in. Stay tuned.
The previously mentioned EOG lease area generally looks like the attached. Probably not the complete picture and probably lazy staff work on my part, but you get the idea.
I just read an article about Saudi Arabia preparing to sell a 5% stake in their state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. They're valuing their oil holdings at $2 TRILLION, which makes that penny-ante 5% valued at $100 BILLION. The kicker is when the Initial Public Offering (IPO) comes around, the selling price of those shares will be directly dependent upon the valuation of that oil field and the current price of a barrel of oil. So this article makes the point that it's in the Saudi's best interests to keep the price of oil up until at least the date of the IPO, and considering how stock price effect company values, maybe even after that.
So with that in mind, I was looking at new drilling permits filed after Jan 1, and there have been no filings for Austin, Washington, Colorado, nor Fayette counties. And only one permit in Lavaca, two miles east of Shiner. On the other hand, just to make you all feel bad, Gonzales has 13 and Karnes a mere 31.
So what's going on? Since GeoSouthern is privately held and doesn't have to make any public statements, were all of those wells around and east of Ammannsville duds? Are they out of money? Are they pulling a Sanchez and heading to another area? All of the leased property seems like a big chunk of change to just walk away from.
I understand Dyson has to begin operations on the Leia 1H before the end of the month. Location about 3.5 miles NNE of Gay Hill. Anyone see a rig on that location yet?
Thanks Kirch. That research is beyond my understanding to find something like that.
Did you look up any permits in Fayette County? There was a drilling rig out near Holman
in Fayette county which is near Weimar and between Weimar and La Grange a few weeks
ago I don't go through there very often. The business that recently leased all my minerals
that were unleased was Riley Exploration. The man behind this is a local resident, I went
and visited their office in Serbin and talked to a guy there. Riley also seems to have some
connections in Oklahoma. I don't know anything else about it. I asked him why they keep
leasing and re-leasing and never drill anything. He didn't know anything about that all he was doing was in the leasing side. I said how can you keep shelling out money over and over for leases and never drill? No real answer though. I cannot figure that out. I told him to get busy and get a rig in here and drill something. Anyway had a good time talking to him.
Just drove through Gay Hill area while ago there was just one operating rig within sight
today. At least one pad waiting for a rig to drill that is close to that road through there.
Now I haven't seen any more new pad construction. There is also a rig drilling right
now on that Snook pad that had three well sites staked on it.
Not in your AOI but Geosouthern just filed a G-1 on their Schlabach well that's between Round Top and Shelby. Tested at 11.2 MMCF/D but only 190 barrels of condensate. In Washington County GS has initially reported low liquids volumes and more showed up on their production reports. They just completed one there called the Winkelmann where they reported over 17 million a day and left a blank in the space where they were supposed to show any liquids although they've installed a big tank battery.
RRC shows GS spudded the Schlabach well 8/24/17 but didn't run the completion test until December. If they follow a similar time schedule they should be reporting something on some of those Ammansville wells soon. Their spud date for Herbrich was (7/20/17), Charbula IH (7/25/17), 2H (7/28/17) and Freis (10/27/17).
I have mineral acreage that has been in my family since the 1880's in Lavaca and Fayette counties. Since the 1950's every tract has been leased about 2 times in every decade through the present. Some successful vertical wells were done in the 1950's on tracts adjoining mine, that were now owned by inheritance to my cousins...but for my grandparents, parents, and myself..so far nothing. However, the leasing bonus is nice.
I have asked the same question to landmen...why lease and then nothing happens...and again same answer that you got...I just lease. found out that the landmen follow orders and lease the lands that are chosen...and they get paid...thats what they want. The company doing the leasing is doing it to 1) sell to another company for more money (flippers), or they really think they could drill the land if everything goes perfectly ( and rarely it does). I have met so many people especially in the last 7 years with the Eagleford mania who really thought that being leased is going to get them a well guaranteed. I have seen people spend money they did not have thinking they were going to get a well. They had to learn the hard way.
Take Delago for instance...they leased in Lavaca county for $1000/acre 20%. Now not that I know anything---or overheard any conversations but just for example---- Delago will assign this acreage to you, for $2000-2500/acre and they want to keep 5% royalty- (so you have to give up 25% royalty), , and zero expense to them on operating cost. They bought $40 million dollars of leases in 2017, financed by "Juniper", which is an investment service. so basically people want to roll the dice and see if they can double their money. Geosouthern has done this for the last 20 years. they use to lease all over...and sometimes they did get a big win...like the Magnum Hunter transaction by Moulton....Geo still gets $ of these units, and of course they made a ton selling Lavaca and dewitt acreage to devon. Now days Geo is more conservative.
So basically you try to get the best lease possible...with the best company possible...and of course this includes talking to your neighbors to ensure you try to all go with the same company--then you just cross your fingers, wish upon a shooting star, and wait to see what happens next..............
Good Luck to everyone on this site...hopefully with oil prices the way they are, we might see more action shortly....
Just feels like everything is limning up again to break out. Back in the "old days", like 4 years ago, the $60/bbl was a magic planning number often thrown around. But I would suspect unless it's basically internally funded, drilling money is still hard to come by. When we leased last year with Tri-C, they acted like they had the trucks lined up on 1295 already. Now of course they all make it sound that way!. I do know Tri-C leased some small tracks they would not need until they were ready to go. The way it is , I sometimes think I'm not checking texasfile new format correctly. Roll the cricket sounds now...
I think the problem is the well results in the Fayette/northern most Lavaca are such that even at $60 the economics are marginal. At $75+ is the level I would expect to see meaningful "above background" activity levels.
Someone I know attended the Houston NAPE conference last week. Whazzat? It's this: http://napeexpo.com/about It's not a technical conference; rather, like the web page says. It's for deal making.
Ross had a booth there, as did KEW. I was thoughtfully provided with electronic versions of their presentations today. I've attached the Ross document here and the KEW will follow on another post. Apologies in advance because some of the pages are upside down. I tried several times to fix this but couldn't, so when you get to an upside down page, just click 'rotate' a couple of times.
Just like the right realtor can make the House On Haunted Hill look attractive, a NAPE sales flyer can do the same thing. Enjoy. KEW coming.
Now that you post this, I will chime in. Santa Rosa has conveyed 50% of its leasehold interest to KEW. It was proposed that they would go 50/50 on drilling the leases, unless they received a large offer for their acreage outright (which your fliers suggest they are trying to do). Unfortunately, it looks like we're in a situation where the companies who leased are already trying to flip their acreage. My best guess is Santa Rosa over spent on leasing and doesn't have the capital or technical knowledge to drill their acreage by themselves, enter KEW.
That being said, good luck to them... Not going to be a huge market in our area when no one has drilled a test well and everyone is focused NE of us where GeoSouthern, et al are drilling monster wells. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
