Hello we are a group of mineral rights owners in an oil well which soon produced in almost two years. The operator say we do not have mineral rights in this Section.
Document of the leasing agreement and mineral deed are all in order and showing in ND records.
In NDRIN we have seen record of our (reg. with our name) mineral acr be leased to a 2end company. After this we don’t find any more.
What is the best thing to do? Contact the last company who are registered with our mineral rights??
This is going to be a long one to get to the bottom of, so I will start at the beginning.
Do you own the surface or just minerals?
Hi
We only own the minerals.
If the operator is saying you don’t have ownership, have you checked to see if the surface owner has reclaimed the minerals? North Dakota has a Dormant Minerals Act.
No we cannot find info on that surface owners have taken over mineral rights.
What makes this strange is that in this area we own a share in a total of four Sections. These four Sections are totally involved in three different DSUs, and also 3 different oil companies.
EKS, we have interest in Section 1-2 and 3-4, Section 1 and X (1 DSU) Section 2 and 3 (2 DSU) Section 4 and X (3 DSU)
In DSU 1 (our Section 1) are all ok we get royalties. Signed and division order. In DSU 2 (our Section 2 and 3) all ok we get royalties and signed division order. In DSU 3 (our Section 4) here’s our problem.
We have written leases with two different leasing companies.
No. 1, leased Section 1 and 3 No. 2, leased Section 2 and 4
Leasing company that leased Section 2 and 4, has only leased our Section 2 to drilling company with wells in 2nd DSU. Cannot see further leasing of our Section 4 to the drilling company who have wells in Section 4 (3 DSU). This is the operator who claims we don’t have interest in Section 4.
NOTES!! All numbers are used just as an example to explain the problem!!
I fully realize that you want to keep things as confidential as possible but ownership of the minerals is public record, it’s how landmen find people to lease you. The operators know where your minerals are and they are the people you are having problems with. I promise I will not start my vehicle, drive 1,500 miles to where your minerals are, dig a hole 10,000 feet and carry your oil away in the middle of the night. If you want free informed help, specific to your situation, I and others are going to need to know more information. So far the important parts of the puzzle are missing and I can’t tell if it’s a deer, elk or moose. I can’t tell if the situation is as simple as a wellhead in one of your spacings with the wellbore in another spacing and since your minerals are not being produced, you really don’t have an interest in that particular well. I just don’t know from the information provided.
Hi,
We appreciate your reply. We have so many questions regarding this, so we do not know exactly where we must begin to find the right answers.
Please let me know if other info is needed to get deeper into it.
• Section 2 and 11 (Spacing Unit) in Township 148-Range 99 in McKenzie County, our mineral rights are in Section 11, S1/2SW1/4 • Operator is Burlington • Wellhead is on Section 2, while we have mineral rights in Section 11 • Our mineral rights are recorded in the County Recorder • We have leased to a Landman, leasing company that has leased the mineral rights further.
I have had problems with Burlington myself. Burlington, which IS Conoco, didn’t want to recognize my interest in 4 wells in McKenzie County, but they eventually did. A fifth well and spacing is still in limbo. I believe that my royalty was being paid to someone else in the beginning because I was told there was no unaccounted-for acreage in the spacings, but there was.
I think the thing to do would be to have a letter sent to Conoco’s legal department return receipt requested, with copies showing the recorder’s reference numbers, of your ownership documentation, lease, and so forth and a demand for payment or to know the reason why not. I say Conoco because you may as well cut out one of the filters.
Thanks for the reply.
This helps us a lot, thanks.
We are in process of making copies and list of documents from the record office. I’ve looked for a good mail address to send our documents to the right office in ConocoPhillips. I do not find any mail address directly linked to Conoco’s legal department.
Do you think this is the right address to send the letter to? Or do you know another address which is better to use?
Mail:
ConocoPhillips Company Owner Relations Unit P.O. Box 5050 Bartlesville, OK 74005
You can try sending it there but I would call their owner relations number and make sure. Ideally there is a title analyst in charge of each well or group of wells. For one of my wells the person in charge at Conoco was C.W. Schmidt, I don’t know if he still is but I will find out in a couple months.
Do not get in a hurry to hear back from them. To hear back from them fast, you need to start a lawsuit. It worked for me but in general I wouldn’t recommend it.
Mr. Kennedy, thank you so much for all help.
We have now sent a letter, we made a list with all instrument numbers regarding our ownership from NDRIN. Also, we sent other documentation. We just have to wait and see. 
Some time ago we tried with e-mail, it was hard to get some answers.
Once more, thanks for all help.