Hi, I own mineral rights in Saskatchewan (around 300 acres). There is a lot of information that I want to get concerning the area, and I would be happy if someone could help me with the questions below:
History details: Which companies drilled in the past in our area?
What was found there in the past? Is there an archive with details concerning that?
Can I get geological reports concerning the area?
What is the exact location? I have directions like: NE Quarter of Section 33, Township… (Can I use Google Earth to reach the area?) I know that the area is approximately 12 miles to the city of Estevan and 12 miles north to the USA border.
How can I get information about the surface owner?
Israel,
While not totally famiar with Canadian issues, let me have a crack at a few of your questions:
Check the public records of your oil and gas regulatory agency. IF not there, try a company called IHS based in Denver, or Drillinginfo.com in Austin TX. These are information/data providers to the oil industry.
Same as above.
Same as above, plus check the Canadian Geological Survey.
Yes, Google Earth is a good resource for locating properties.
You’ll need to sign up for a free account but you will be able to download title documents for 5-10 bucks. Much better than what I’m used to in the U.S.
I am looking at buying up a small acerage in SK. My question is I would own the Surface Title, however the seller wants to retain the rights to the minerals through the Mineral Title.
What is the repercussions for the Surface Title owner. If I build my house and my yard and put in a an orchard, can the Mineral rights owner come in and put an oil well in my backyard, even if I disagree? Detracting from my parcels value?
Ms. Anderson, the minerals would have no value if the mineral owner did not have the right to enter, produce, and remove them from the property, but the entrance could be subsurface only. I don’t know how small the property you are looking at is, or the laws of Canada, but in the U.S. the surface use to extract the minerals has to be reasonable. I think if the parcel is smaller than 40 acres you could easily negotiate a no surface use provision with the seller, i.e., that the seller will not grant right of ingress/egress to the surface to a lessee. With horizontal drilling, a well could tap any oil and gas under your surface from off your property. I am not certain this is a solution to your question, but I think it’s a possible way for you and the seller to both win. I hope I gave you a place to start looking. Best wishes; R.
Nicole Anderson said:
I am looking at buying up a small acreage in SK. My question is I would own the Surface Title, however the seller wants to retain the rights to the minerals through the Mineral Title.
What is the repercussion for the Surface Title owner? If I build my house and my yard and put in an orchard, can the Mineral rights owner come in and put an oil well in my backyard, even if I disagree? Detracting from my parcel’s value?
Oh boy I found one like me!! I also have rights there. This is a link to a very helpful organization. I started a group for Canada, but hadn’t found this thread, so, hope this helps. Lori.
Nice to meet you. At last I can share my feeling with someone else. Did your property located near mine?
First I know FHOA. (It did not help me much).
I am very frustrated from my situation because I leased the property for 5 years and nothing has happened. Probably it’s my fault because I was not familiar with those kinds of agreements, and after a while that no one asked about leasing it - we just agreed with the first company who wanted to close it with us. Now I know that it’s a mistake to lease it more than one year (unless someone obligates to drill there).
It looks like that you have a lot of experience with that issue - I will be happy to hear from you.
I can’t say lots of experience, we have had about four offers since 1996, and we signed one when we knew nothing and just did what they ask. The next one in 2005 was the best to date, we negotiated, and got 30,000 dollars bonus and 17% royalty on a 3 year lease. Then recently last year a real dud came through, and we did not sign it. I have gotten my knowledge from FHOA, and common sense.
My family members have mineral rights near Estevan and some of the property is unleased. Can you tell me more about the type of acreage you are looking for?
Thanks,
Jerry
Peter Carwardine said:
I could be interested in leasing.
Israel Efrony said:
It’s actually leased right now for some company. Why are you asking?
We signed a lease in 2006, I believe the bonus was about $150 per acre for 3 years. Is that about the same amount per acre or did you do a lot better than that? We have a lawyer as an agent. Do you have an agent or deal directly with the land company?
If you would rather not say, no problem.
Lori B said:
I can’t say lots of experience, we have had about four offers since 1996, and we signed one when we knew nothing and just did what they asked. The next one in 2005 was the best to date, we negotiated, and got 30,000 dollars bonus and 17% royalty on a 3-year lease. Then recently last year a real dud came through, and we did not sign it. I have gotten my knowledge from FHOA, and common sense.
Hi. I will dig up my records and look at it. I think all was on fire in 2006 and that is the best rate we got. Then 2009 like I said we didn’t sign. It wasn’t worth our while. We have lots of acres, so $30,000 was for the entire 2 sections.
We could be making mistakes and being too picky, but for now I’d rather err on the conservative side. As I look at the geology maps, I’m not sure we have much Bakken under us. We have Birdbear, and 5 others. I don’t hear much of them drilling to those formations. I need to talk to my family, but I think we ought to charge a high bonus and give away the royalty for 5% like the government offers them if we have no Bakken. It looks very thin under us from what I can tell. Who knows!!! Maybe 5 meters thick.
Thanks, RL. I got some value out of that site already. Somehow I ended up with a blog from a tax lawyer and found the answers to several issues we are addressing.
Thanks for the info. Looks like we are in a similar range for contracts. We had not signed from 2006 until we got a new lease a couple months ago. We put in a few items that are strongly recommended by the FHOA. I like that site a lot as it contains very useful information on the industry. My cousin is a huge fan of the FHOA site and wants to shape our leases in accordance with the FHOA ideas. Our rights are in the SE corner of Saskatchewan. Maps I have seen indicate the property is in the Bakken reserve, however, it likely is not in the prime part of it.
Lori B said:
Hi. I will dig up my records and look at it. I think all was on fire in 2006 and that is the best rate we got. Then 2009 like I said we didn’t sign. It wasn’t worth our while. We have lots of acres, so $30,000 was for the entire 2 sections. We could be making mistakes and being too picky, but for now I’d rather err on the conservative side. As I look at the geology maps, I’m not sure we have much Bakken under us. We have Birdbear, and 5 others. I don’t hear much of them drilling to those formations. I need to talk to my family, but I think we ought to charge a high bonus and give away the royalty for 5% like the government offers them if we have no Bakken. It looks very thin under us from what I can tell. Who knows!!! Maybe 5 meters thick.
Jerry Rislove said:
Hi Lori,
We signed a lease in 2006, I believe the bonus was about $150 per acre for 3 years. Is that about the same amount per acre or did you do a lot better than that? We have a lawyer as an agent. Do you have an agent or deal directly with the land company?
If you would rather not say, no problem.
Lori B said:
I can’t say lots of experience, we have had about four offers since 1996, and we signed one when we knew nothing and just did what they ask. The next one in 2005 was the best to date, we negotiated, and got 30,000 dollars bonus and 17% royalty on a 3 year lease. Then recently last year a real dud came through, and we did not sign it. I have gotten my knowledge from FHOA, and common sense.
I agree about FHOA. We are members. I would also wait for The Just Freehold energy company to develop our rights, too. They use a freehold friendly lease. We need to get freeholders organised to hold out on this point. The SK government has us over a barrel. But that could take years. They haven’t started any new projects since we joined.