My sister and I inherited mineral rights. I know very little about mineral rights. I sign leases for whatever amount they offer. Never heard of Pugh Clause until I read it on here. Recently she received a royalty check and I did not. We own the same rights, different percents. I called Oasis Petroleum. They said my name is not on the list. I faxed paperwork proving my claim. That was 3 weeks ago. I have not heard anything from the woman I faxed the info to. I have called and emailed several times. All I get is her voicemail. I don’t know what else to do. Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions?
What state?
Hi Nancy,
It’s in the Williston Area in North Dakota.
Fay, the wheels turn slowly most of the time. I’ve had wells producing for 5 years and after contacting the operator, it has taken more than a year to get them to admit that I own an interest in the wells. I would say that persistence is key, along with being polite but firm. I also suggest that you call any other numbers that you can find for Oasis. I was getting nowhere fast with Conoco’s owner relations numbers, and I called the unclaimed property number and started getting some action; my calls were returned at least. I wish you luck with your North Dakota minerals.
Fay:
Great advice from both RW and Joel but the most important advice is to be persistent in your quest to claim what is legally yours. You didn’t state your share of the net mineral acres, but if it is very small, I have seen oil companies work slowly in these cases thus concentrating on the larger mineral owners. Good luck.
You might wish to start a new thread and include the name of the company in the title, e.g. “Oasis Petroleum royalty non-payment problem.” Include in your correspondence and t/c’s to Oasis that you have posted a thread in a public forum that gets a lot of mineral-owner traffic, and that you intend to post frequent updates, a lot of mineral owners are following the issue, and once Oasis resolves the problem to your satisfaction you will of course post to alert all the viewers that Oasis did resolve the problem, tell Oasis that mineral owners understand that some mistakes are inevitable, and that mineral owners feel it is successful problem resolution that separates the great companies from the poor companies, blah blah, this might get their attention! In your letter you can paste in the url of this thread (and the new one if you do decide to start a new one with company name in the title of the thread).
I myself will be watching to see what Oasis does to resolve the issue satisfactorily for you.
Did you sign a lease or a division order with Oasis?
The delay may be due to their recent move: “Oasis recently moved its Houston main office from Suite 202 to Suite 1500 in the same building.”
Call (281) 404-9500 and ask to talk to Roy W. Mace: “Roy W. Mace has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer…”
Oasis Petroleum Inc. 1001 Fannin Street, Suite 1500 Houston, Texas 77002 (281) 404-9500
All office phone numbers for employees have changed to (281) 404 –XXXX All email addresses for employees now have the address of @oasispetroleum.com
Hope this helps. Post your result - I’m interested.
Thank you to each of you for your help and info. I am truly grateful for all your advice. I own 30 net mineral acres at this location. No, I have not signed a lease or division on this well. I have not received any info at all on this well, although I have signed both on a couple of other locations. I called Mr. Mace and left a voicemail. I will keep you posted and thanks again.
A word on division orders in North Dakota. You do not have to return a division order for the operator to be required to pay you. Division order or not, they would owe you interest on payments more than 150 days in arrears (after first sales). Be very careful that the interest stipulated on a division order matches your interest if you choose to return it, or if you have producing wells in a state where it would be required.
If you are unleased, you might as well cut to the chase and get a lawyer. A letter or two under a lawyer’s letterhead may do the trick. It will also show that you are serious about being paid. I hope you have a good well and enjoy the 16% royalty until your part of the well and 50% penalty are paid off when you will receive 100% less cost of production.
I finally reached a person, Tom Harkins, at Oasis. He is a supervisor to the person I have been trying to reach. He returned my call on 12/10. He apologized and said he would investigate. On 12/11 he reported he found the paperwork I faxed and said he would look into it and would get back to me by 12/13. He seems to be sincere about helping me and I have a pretty good feeling about it. Again thanks to all of you and I’ll let you know what I find out.
Since you haven’t signed a lease yet, you might want to post Oasis’ offer on this forum and see what others think about the offer.
Elizabeth Burke Taylor said:
Did you sign a lease or a division order with Oasis?
The delay may be due to their recent move: “Oasis recently moved its Houston main office from Suite 202 to Suite 1500 in the same building.”
Call (281) 404-9500 and ask to talk to Roy W. Mace: “Roy W. Mace has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer…”
Oasis Petroleum Inc. 1001 Fannin Street, Suite 1500 Houston, Texas 77002 (281) 404-9500
All office phone numbers for employees have changed to (281) 404-XXXX All email addresses for employees now have the address of @oasispetroleum.com
Hope this helps. Post your result - I’m interested.
OOPS Wrong dates should be 12/12, 12/13, 12/15. Sorry, I was looking at the wrong calendar.
Elizabeth Burke Taylor said:
Since you haven’t signed a lease yet, you might want to post Oasis’ offer on this forum and see what others think about the offer.
Elizabeth Burke Taylor said:
Did you sign a lease or a division order with Oasis?
The delay may be due to their recent move: “Oasis recently moved its Houston main office from Suite 202 to Suite 1500 in the same building.”
Call (281) 404-9500 and ask to talk to Roy W. Mace: “Roy W. Mace has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer…”
Oasis Petroleum Inc. 1001 Fannin Street, Suite 1500 Houston, Texas 77002 (281) 404-9500
All office phone numbers for employees have changed to (281) 404-XXXX All email addresses for employees now have the address of @oasispetroleum.com
Hope this helps. Post your result - I’m interested.
I was wrong. I did sign a lease in 2004 and renewed it in 2009. I have not received a division order or royalties, although my sister has. I have not heard anymore from Oasis.
Why different "%"s? Was that from the inheritance or Oil/Gas company? Just being nosey and I don’t want the same to happen to my sisters and myself.
I am new to this issue myself. We also inherited property with a share on the mineral rights with previous owners of the property. But finding this website has opened my eyes. But it seems like from what I have read once your sister got the division order you also should have received one. How long has she had hers and why didn’t she check with you to make sure you were getting yours? Don’t mean to start an issue. But right now my sisters and I stay in touch to find out what has been received.
Fay Donovan said:
I was wrong. I did sign a lease in 2004 and renewed it in 2009. I have not received a division order or royalties, although my sister has. I have not heard anymore from Oasis.
The percents were determined by the will. Oil Co. had nothing to do with that.
Oasis called today. My name not on the document the attorney that looks up that data gave to the Oil Co. She has copies of the lease, but says they go by that document. I told her I have other wells with Oasis and the documents should be the same. I think this attorney made an error or incomplete search. She said she would check the other documents and get back to me by Wednesday.
I talked to Oasis today. They located other search deed documents with the correct data on them. Even so, they will not put my name on the pay list until my name is on the list for that particular well. She emailed the attorney that did the search and asked them to recheck. I’ll wait until after the holidays, then see what’s happening.
Thanks for keeping us updated. I’m very interested in how this turns out for you.
Merry Christmas!