Looking for a good O&G attorney familiar/serving the Lavaca County, TX area. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
I am using Jessie Allen in Hallettsville. His daughter Ana, also an attorney takes care of the leases. They are the preferred lawyer to use for EOG, you should have received the offer from EOG to pay $700 towards your lawyer fees from your landman. if you use Allen & Allen attorneys
You can observe qualified professionals (often with localized expertise) who provide services to mineral owners right here on The Mineral Rights Forum. You will notice them among 3 different instances on the site:
-
in display image ads and/or brief text messaging on site
-
in our Mineral Service Provider Directory in the main navigation above. These are arranged by professional discipline.
-
as a Business Member participating in many conversations throughout the site (note the blue colored “B” on their picture and blue text on their posts).
These practitioners are often able to provide the specific (and often localized) services that meet your needs.
The Mineral Rights Forum Administration
I recommended Allen and Allen. Is it possible to get your approximate location such as distance and direction from Hallettsville instead of the survey?
Do you mean that EOG selects and pays for the attorney? Or just that EOG offered $700 to be paid to any attorney that the mineral owner selects? If EOG only pays for a particular attorney, then that would create a possible conflict of interest for the attorney as to whom he is representing - EOG or the mineral owner.
We received offer that EOG would pay $750 is we use Machacek & Appelt… This seems to be a conflict of interest to me…
About 7-9 miles NW of Hallettsville-depending on which route you take
My properties are close to Breslau…bordering and just south of the Lavaca river. I was only offered $600/acre…I guess I got the half price offer !! Allen & Allen attorneys were discussed since they already have an approved lease form…there might be other attorneys that have this approved form… That is why i am wondering if there are different locations that pay better bonus…but it looks like according to the other poster here that we are close to the same area…Re-thinking my deal at this point…Maybe different landman ??? mine has a first name of Johnny. from Red Hawk for EOG…anyone with a different landman ??
@MR_ML a few tips in general on leasing:
-
do not assume that lawyers know the going lease rates within a specific area. they are lawyers, not to be confused with being up to date and current on MOVING TARGETS (lease bonuses, royalty rates, multiple other important terms within a lease). they should be skilled in contractual language, defensive measures, title issues, payment terms etc.
-
mentioned above also… conflicts with producers in the area
-
remember, law is generally a Statewide body of knowledge. don’t assume a local lawyer is any better than one elsewhere in the state.
-
talk to other local mineral owners… those are people on your side of the table
just a few thoughts
The Oil companies preferred lawyer would be in the companies favor, not yours, don’t you think?
IMO, there is no better attorney to handle an oil and gas lease than Mike Steinhauser, located in Flatonia. I suspect he has done at least as many or more leases over the last 15 years than anyone in this part of Texas. My only caution is that he runs solitary and may not take on any more clients; but, he knows the business backwards and forward and is easy to work with. Good luck!
There is another company out there as well offer more I was told today. I think they are Gulf Tex, however they only want certain properties, but they are offering like double what EOG/Red Hawk is offering. EOG contacted us.
Can you elaborate on what “certain properties” refer too?
I guess like certain areas in Lavaca county. For example Gulf Tex didn’t call us to lease, but EOG did.
My offer was from GulfTex for $600 per acre. My mineral rights are located on the Thomas Chadoin Survey, right across from the Bohuslav feed mill. Looks like the edge of the survey is right on the river.
1 Like
Gulftex does it’s own drilling however, the leases they did in 2023 were all assigned over to EOG. This assignment of the leases happened in July then September of 2023…which is also the last date Gulftex has leased in Lavaca county. Gulftex has been leasing again the last 2 months but they have not recorded any of their leases yet at the county office. will they keep these leases or sell them to EOG again. IMO if they are only looking to lease in the Chadoin survey, they might drill themselves. Most all of the land tracts west of Chadoin, west side of FM 1295 are in production by Modern energy and another company that starts with an S I forgot their name. Modern did 2 wells on the same unit and came in around 400 boepd for a 30 day rate…not too great, but they do not have the experience of Baytex formerly Ranger formerly Penn Virginia…so $600/ acre is a decent lease offer.