Company D purchased the operating/purchasing rights from Company R in 2018. In 2019 Company P became the purchaser, while Company D stayed the operator.
After a week of trying to find a good phone number for D, I contacted R, who gave me the correct contact info. I found out P was the current purchaser, who told me they didn’t receive any interest owner info from D. P told me to contact D to get them to send interest owner info.
I’m wondering why I should have to contact D to request the info be sent?
P has been collecting payment for the commodity for 12 months now, and not paying 1 interest owner. As far as I know D never paid any interest owners either.
If you want a reliable response, you should post legal description of your minerals, original lessee of your minerals, lease name, operator, and other relevant information. You need to trace the assignments of your lease in the deed records as your lessee is responsible for for making sure your royalties are paid. Did your lessee participate in the well? There should be a signed JOA in deed records. Is there a unit or is this a sharing or allocation well? The operator should have a drilling title opinion which would include your minerals. It would be extremely unusual for an operator to be paying no royalty owners in a well. As a general recommendation, you should send an email to the operator including your lease information, laying out in detail your reasons that you believe you are a mineral owner in the well. Include a copy of any prior division orders and a check stub detail which would make it clearer for operator to see the issue. If you have never been paid by anyone, include a copy of your lease. It is far better to have an email chain for reference than to rely on notes from phone conversations. Often there is confusion as to an understanding of the issues and facts in phone conversations.
You may also want to follow up in identical fashion by sending the same documents in a certified return receipt letter, so you have a name as to who received the letter. Keep a copy of everything.
First off, Thanks for both replies. I have emailed Company D, and am waiting to hear back.
I may have errored in wording my post. When I said “P has been collecting payment for the commodity for 12 months now, and not paying 1 interest owner”, I meant not ANY interest owners.
Does Company P just have to sit back and wait until Company D decides to send them the interest owner info?
It seems that if P is the purchaser they should be have the responsibility to force D to send them the complete list of interest owners.