I got a couple division orders from BB Land / JayBee Oil yesterday, basically saying that they had drilled a couple wells on pooled parcels that include one of our tracts. We had leased mineral rights to BB Land some time last year, and this is the first time we’ve heard of any activity. Their original proposal (2016) showed that my sister, my brother, and myself, would get half of my deceased mother’s portion of mineral rights that are inherited from her great aunt, and the other half would go to my father. My father expressed that he was not interested in his portion, so “we children” assumed that our share would double from what BB Land had originally calculated in their offer to lease. With yesterday’s development, it occurred to me that we should have something in writing to show the percentage adjustment, due to my father’s forfeiture. I called the number on the papers that I got from BB Land / JayBee Oil, and talked to Linda Purnell. She seemed a little confused at first on what I wanted, then she said that she found in her records that the adjustment had already been made to account for my father’s forfeiture of “heirship”. When I asked if she could send something in writing that reflected the new amounts, she said that she (located in NJ), nor anyone at her company (i.e. the WV representative, Lisa Cattafesta), could send a “certified record of opinion”, because it was too costly. I’ve never heard of the “certified record of opinion” before, and don’t understand why it would be costly to send what amounts to a verification of contract changes. Last year, there was no problem when I asked them (Lisa Cattafesta) to retype the original paperwork, since they had my name wrong.
Does this sound legitimate?
Thanks, Grayson C. Thornton