My wife received an offer to buy her portion of her grandfather's holdings described as the following, Langley 41, Laredo Petroleum, T1S BLK33 SEC41 A-378, T&P RR. We would only be entitled to 1/2 of whatever this is worth. We inherited other properties from my wife's father but we have never received any royalties or paid any taxes in Howard County in the 20 years since my father-in-law passed away. The offer includes all the paperwork and back taxes. Trying to assess if this is a wise thing to sell or should transfer the ownership ourselves and keep the property.
Craig,
The GIS Map shows 5 producing vertical wells in Section 41 and 2 or 3 plugged oil wells. Also close by to the north is a Horizontal oil well that was drilled in 2015/Completion Report showed 1,133 BOPD(Barrel Oil Per Day).
http://webapps.rrc.texas.gov/CMPL/viewPdfReportFormAction.do?method...
Production Data on well 227-38237/Lease # 46576:
The Sprayberry and Wolfcamp Formations are being targeted in this region and are good producers.
Definitely transfer the ownership and keep the property. Do not sell.
Clint Liles
Any thoughts on who to contact regarding the transfer, additionally per the Texas unclaimed property site there are only a small amount of royalties that have not been paid out. Where could I research to see if there are royalties that have not been paid and where thye might be?
Craig,
An oil and gas Landman might be a good source to research this for you.
Friends Request sent..............
Clint Liles
Hi, Craig -
Hi, Clint -
Craig, I can help you with this. Is your interest in all of Section 41? If not, I will need the legal description (metes and bounds) of the specific properties in Section 41 to identify what Well(s) your lands are included in.
As to what is reflected in the Comptroller's Unclaimed Properties website, I have a client with a little over $6K being held there, but the Oil Company involved has an additional $12K in suspense, waiting for the paperwork to get sorted out.
I can help you identify all of the possible parties you may need to contact regarding any royalties being held in suspense.
Sending you an invitation to become a Friend on The Forum.
Charles Emery Tooke III
Certified Professional Landman
Fort Worth, Texas
The only information that I have is what is reflected on the Howard County tax roll.
Langley 41, Laredo Petroleum, T15 BLK 33 SEC 41 A-378, T&PRR
I'll look it up for you after lunch. What name(s) would your interests be under?
J L DENTON
Craig,
Below is a screenshot of what part of the paydeck for the Langley 41 looked like in 2015. JL Denton is credited with a 0.005025 RI. That is a sizable interest and I would suggest holding onto it. It was appraised by Howard County to have a tax value of $13,550 in 2015, but that is a small fraction of what it is actually worth. The value will go up significantly when horizontal development begins. It appears Charles W. Denton also has an equal interest, so if he or his heirs are related to you, you may want to contact them to let them know.
As for the royalties being held in suspense, Laredo Petroleum is the operator, and you can contact their owner relations department at the phone number and email below:
(918) 513-4570
OwnerRelations@laredopetro.com
You can tell them you are the heir to a mineral owner that you believe has funds being held in suspense, and they'll walk you through what they need to get the ownership transferred and the unpaid royalties distributed. For any of the unclaimed royalties that may have gone to State, the comptroller's office should be able to walk you through the process of recovering those. You can file the same instruments that the comptroller/Laredo request with the Howard County clerk, and that should make you the record owners. The process may sound involved, but fortunately Laredo should be eager to help and get their paydeck cleaned up.
Good Research, Wolfcamp!
And, wow! You're right: a $13,550 annual valuation is amazing! And two of them in the family at that!
Just as I suspected, it may be that the potential Buyer is trying to buy Craig's (and probably Charles') mineral interests using what amounts to his/their own money. They probably have their paperwork effective "as of the first date of production" or something equally smarmy.
The only thing I would have added would have been the name(s) of whoever is buying the oil and/or gas. They sometimes disburse the royalties and could have royalties in suspense.
The website I go to to download that information appears to be having some difficulties this afternoon, but I will send that information whenever it gets back online.
And, Craig, you need to contact the Howard County Tax Appraisal District and/or the Tax Collector's Office and ask whether there are any outstanding taxes owed on your interests.
I also recieved a letter from a company interested in property in Andrews county. I went to the tax roles and couldn't find anything. Any thoughts on where I could find whether J L Denton has mineral holdings in Andrews?
Craig, it looks like JL Denton and CW Denton at one point each owned a 5/470 interest in the oil, gas and minerals in the South 480 acres of Section 1, Block A-33, PSL, Andrews County, TX, save and except the Southwest Quarter of the Northeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter. They obtained this interest from Hemden Oil Co. in a deed dated effective November 1, 1970, recorded in Volume 375, Page 14 of the Deed Records of Andrews County, TX. There does not appear to be any oil and gas activity on this section, though there is in neighboring sections.
Their Howard County interest came from Hemden Oil Co. as well, in a deed filed in Volume 415, Page 515 of the Real Property Records of Howard County, TX.
Just to re-emphasize, the appraised values from the taxing authorities are not representative of the fair market value of the minerals. Your Howard County minerals are worth much more than what they are appraised for currently, as that value is only based off of the current production. If you decide that you are wanting to sell the minerals, I would advise reaching out to one of the forum sponsors that may be able to give you a better idea of what they could sell for.
http://marketplace.mineralrightsforum.com/ad-category/minerals-mana...
Here you go!
There will be much, much more to the title to the land, and there may be additional lands, but these documents describe what lands I found under "Denton J*" and give you a fractional interest.
I'll send you information on what is going on around this property as well, when DrillingInfo gets back online. Unless Clint or Wolfcamp beat me to it.
Hope this helps!
858-235230DRDENTONTOHEMDEN1959.pdf (495 KB) 859-37514DRHEMDENTODENTONETAL1970.pdf (420 KB)Craig -
Please download and review the attached.
Clint was correct in that there are a number of wells that have been drilled in Section 41. But J. L. Denton is only listed in one of the wells' Mineral Tax Appraisal: API# 42-277-37693, Laredo Petroleum, Inc. - Langley 41 No. 1.
Clint was also correct that the Encana Oil & Gas - Catcher 40 (alloc) No. 5H in the Section to the East, Northeast of you came in with an Initial Potential (IP) of 1,133 Barrels of Oil Per Day (BOPD). It also produces an amount of Natural Gas, but that IP was not included in the materials available through DrillingInfo.
That is an exciting amount of oil, but please note that that that IP is from March 2015. By February 2016, only 11 months later, the average is down to 84.6 BOPD. And, whatever the Natural Gas IP'd at in March 2015, it is now down to about 110 Thousand Cubic Feet Per Day (MCFD).
Those first few checks might have been pretty Cool Beans, but overall, that's not particularly motivating. And the odds are, with the prices of oil and gas today and for the foreseeable future, you aren't going to be seeing any additional Horizontal drilling in the area anytime soon.
I was unable to locate any Price Data information on the Langley 41 No. 1, so I can't offer any accurate figures. But I was able to determine that through February 2016, it has produced 27,525 BO and 59,913 MCF.
With J. L. Denton's decimal interest at 0.005025, that calculates out to roughly 138.31 BO and 301.06 MCF attributable to his interest.
Averaging the March 2015 and January/February 2016 Price Data for the Catcher 40 (Alloc) No. 5H, I came up with the wildly ballpark figures of $36.051/BO and $4.0625/MCF.
139.31 BO X $36.051 = $5,022.27
301.06 MCF X $4.0625 = $1,223.06
That indicates to me that you should have about $6,245 and change in suspense (Pre-Tax and possibly Pre-Deductions for making the products marketable).
As I mentioned previously, Laredo Petroleum may have all of your royalties presently "In Suspense". But, if you will see the Price Data Hub Page, Page 11 in the information on the Langley 41 No. 1, they are selling the Oil to NGL Crude Logistics and the Natural Gas to WTG Gas Processing. You should contact each of them as well to see if they have any royalties in suspense for you.
Ask for the Division Order Departments. As Wolfcamp commented, they will guide you through the process required to release your royalties.
Please see the 2015 Mineral Tax Appraisal for the Langley 41 No. 1 beginning on Page 12. Several other people, including Charles W. Denton, have royalties in suspense as well. If you know any of them, or their heirs or assigns, I'm sure they would appreciate your sharing this information with them.
Sorry for the lengthy message, but there was a lot to go over.
Hope this helps -
Charles
856-4227737693LAREDOLANGLEY41NO1.pdf (1.33 MB) 857-4227738237ENCANACATCHER40ALLOCNO5H.pdf (1.12 MB)Charles, I have a bit more optimism about the value of Craig's Howard County acreage, and the possibility of it being drilled in a sub-$50 oil environment. The neighboring Encana well (former Athlon well) is not a good indicator of the production potential for a number of different reasons. You'll notice that Crownquest recently obtained a drilling permit for API 227-38704 spanning nearby Sections 25 & 36, B33, T1S. I'm sure you know that CQ is one of the best operators in the Midland Basin. When you combine their expertise, frac design, the length of the lateral, etc...it will undoubtedly result in that being a monster well. It is no secret that shale wells have massive decline rates in the first year, but what is also relevant is the evolving methods by which that that is being mitigated, and that largely comes down to who is drilling, completing and operating the well. The other thing to take into consideration is the significant number of additional wells that can be stuffed into these sections. That number grows exponentially when you factor in all of the benches. Selling the minerals for anything near the tax value would be giving them away.
I don't disagree with you, just wanted him to see both sides of the coin.
Maybe he should first recover the royalties in suspense and them wait to see what the Crowquest's well does.
Craig,
Have you done anything with these interests yet?
The reason I am asking is that between the last time you posted anything and now, I was contacted by a family that had been offered a total of $6,400 for their royalty interests in a tract of land in Howard County that they didn't even know they owned.
I explained to them that while most (well, a good many) mineral and royalty buyers are above board, there are some out there who appear to not be. That the company offering to buy them out might know something that they don't, such as they're having royalties in suspense.
That the company might be trying to buy them out using what is essentially their own money.
They gave me a little time to research the issue and, sure enough, the company owes them something in the neighborhood of $320,000.00. An Attorney and I are now working with the family in efforts to recover those funds.
What made me think of you was that the Company Operating the Wells (there were two drilled on their lands in 2012) was LAREDO PETROLEUM. And I have heard from other sources that they have a habit of not paying their Royalty Owners.
In the case of the family the Attorney and I are helping, Laredo never even contacted them.
If you haven't done anything with your interests yet, with your permission I would like to take another look at your situation.
In the meantime, if you haven't done anything yet: DON'T SIGN ANYTHING!
Charles
The DrillingInfo report on the Catcher well is fascinating. Thanks for sharing it.
I appreciate your complement, AJ. It's just the information that is available through DrillingInfo.com
Craig -
I spend part of my Sunday afternoon and took a look at your wife's family's interests in Howard County.
I believe her interests (well, the interests of the heirs of J. L. Denton and Charles W. Denton) are in seven (7) Wells that have produced over the past twenty (20) years. There may be more.
And, I haven't calculated how much the Denton Heirs' interest is in each of the Units they are included in, but to total production from the Seven (7) Wells through June 2016 is:
120,638 Barrels of Oil or Condensate, and
288,082 MCF of Gas.
Whenever you join us here on The Forum again, contact me and I will send you the data.
Hope this helps -
Charles