i have mineral interests in north dakota. my land was leased and a couple of wells were drilled by continental resources. they have suspended my pay status. i have sent them documentation but, they will not respond to calls nor to emails. my atty. has contacted and they will not contact her. does anyone else have this problem with continental? thanks
okay one more problem. the oil company is saying that i need to come up with an affidavit from a person who knew myron olson in 1948. my grandfather, an atty., leased this land in 1953 from thomas olson, the son i presume. i have someone in crosby, nd trying to find an olson but, this title has been searched by the leasing company. i am so confused.
Since the oil company has suspended royalty until this requirement has been satisfied, the company should furnish you with the complete details, preferably from the original title opinion and any supplemental opinions, so that you and your attorney can determine exactly what the examining attorney is requiring. The supplemental opinions, if any, should show you what work has been done on the requirement so that you might focus on the areas yet unworked. I am unfamiliar with probate laws in ND but the title attorney who examined my father's mineral title in Dunn County required an ancillary probate held in ND, so it seems that estates in ND may be required to go through a court hearing to determine heirship? Again, I'm not real clear on this. (In Texas, a person can die and the property automatically vests in the heirs without any probate, administration or other court action, in the event the deceased had no will.) If Myron Olson had a will and such was not presented to the examining attorney, then that may be all you need to find. If you know where Myron Olson lived and died, you probably need to start there to find probate or other evidence of heirship or estate transfer. Our family heirship affidavit was rejected by the examining attorney because no proceeding had been held in ND. We hired an attorney and got the heirship declared and everything was find for us. Hope this is helpful to you and I wish I knew more about ND law. -- Best Regards, Phil
thanks so much phil. i actually found the ancillary probate documents from nd. yest. we filed them in 2009. i will send them to continental. the fact that i try to contact continental and they will not respond is very discouraging. i think the fact that they do not have to pay interest while i am suspended is a huge impetus for them not to respond. thanks. kitzel
I would hope that is not the case with Continental (holding royalty). I assume you are communicating with Continental's division order department? I heard that Continental has 900,000 acres in the Bakken. That's a lot of mineral ownerships to keep up with. My work is keeping me plenty busy in Texas but I am real curious about seeing the activity in ND. Phil
kitzel braatelien said:
thanks so much phil. i actually found the ancillary probate documents from nd. yest. we filed them in 2009. i will send them to continental. the fact that i try to contact continental and they will not respond is very discouraging. i think the fact that they do not have to pay interest while i am suspended is a huge impetus for them not to respond. thanks. kitzel
I did a little research on this a few weeks ago and you may know this but to reiterate what Mr. Sartin said, if you got the probate done in a different state from where the real property is, most states require an ancillary probate done in the state where the real property lies. Also, a probated will is enough to change ownership but for title searches, it is beneficial to get the deed in your name. When the estate was probated, the personal representative should have issued an executor’s deed. You would probably have to consult an attorney to do get it changed now. However if you send the probated will, that should be sufficient to get the royalties. Just so you know, i am not an attorney so what i have said is just based off of info that i found on the internet. Hope this helps though
i am attempting to communicate with their division order dept. they will not call me back nor will they answer emails from me or my atty. i already have checks coming from continental on other property so, the whole thing is disturbing. obviously, when i leased the land i had to provide reams of documents. my sister thinks they are just sitting there collecting interest on the money they owe us. sorry to be so cynical. i will have my atty. search the records for myron’s will. that is a great idea. thanks so much for your input. we have six new wells right now and two that are suspended. that is a lot of activity. my grandpa who was an atty. in crosby got these mineral acres in lieu of payment. he wanted them for my dad. this is back in the 1950’s. he was such a nice person. in one of his letters he says “someday these may be worth a couple of hundred dollars an acre”. he would be proud.
Phil Sartin said:
I would hope that is not the case with Continental (holding royalty). I assume you are communicating with Continental's division order department? I heard that Continental has 900,000 acres in the Bakken. That's a lot of mineral ownerships to keep up with. My work is keeping me plenty busy in Texas but I am real curious about seeing the activity in ND. Phil
kitzel braatelien said:thanks so much phil. i actually found the ancillary probate documents from nd. yest. we filed them in 2009. i will send them to continental. the fact that i try to contact continental and they will not respond is very discouraging. i think the fact that they do not have to pay interest while i am suspended is a huge impetus for them not to respond. thanks. kitzel
my dad lived in illinois. the property is in nd. we opened probate in illinois and did ancillary in nd. they may not have the letters of testamentary so i am sending those tomorrow. i have all of the deeds recorded in the name of our family llc. they are recorded in nd. as i have said before, continental has all of the deeds. if they would just tell me what they want my life would be so much easier. surely someone oversees these big companies? thanks for all the input.
Kitzel,
You’re probable on a long list of owners to get back with. I noticed that continental is currently advertising for division order analysts. They are probably backlogged. Hang in there and keep requesting every few days. They’ll get back to you eventually.
I thought my problems were resolved. Have been receiving royalty checks on several continental wells for past two years. Then, in January I began receiving huge bills from continental. I have one mineral acre that they did not lease. As it turns out the bills were actually for 20 mineral acres. I have found that it is probably easier to go through diamond than continental. Continental is saying I am an interest owner in this well. Thanks for responding. It is nice just to be able to vent. Thanks again!
Kitzel,
Are they overbilling you for your share in the cost of drilling or are they saying they overpaid you and want a return?
Has continental offered to lease the acre or sent you an AFE? You may want to participate in that acre if the production looks good enough.
kitzel braatelien said:
I thought my problems were resolved. Have been receiving royalty checks on several continental wells for past two years. Then, in January I began receiving huge bills from continental. I have one mineral acre that they did not lease. As it turns out the bills were actually for 20 mineral acres. I have found that it is probably easier to go through diamond than continental. Continental is saying I am an interest owner in this well. Thanks for responding. It is nice just to be able to vent. Thanks again!
Diamond told me yesterday that they will put me under lease. Please pray that this happens. I have been getting royalty payments on the franklin well for years. Three weeks ago this woman at continental said: “but if we put you under lease who would pay your working interest?”. I believe that this is just a situation where they drilled and missed my one mineral acre(they leased all of my other mineral acres in 160-95) and neglected to send me an election letter. I hope that this is cleared up soon. My sister starts chemo-in Colorado on Thursday. Thanks for responding!
How many years? Continental was supposed to be taking 84% of the production of that acre to pay for the well and a 50% actual cost of drilling and completing the well. That acre could be paid off already and you would be entitled to 100% less expenses, figure probably equivalent to 80% royalty. Actually if they never offered to lease that acre or sent you an afe they are not supposed to be able to impose a risk penalty, that acre could easily be paid for. There is a proceedure set out by law that Continental should have followed. It's your money, give away as much of it as you want. possibly you have been paid nothing for that acre. if production is over 175k barrels that well is probably paid off, and alot more than paid off.
Diamond leased the acre from me yesterday. I just want this nightmare to be over! The woman I am dealing with at continental is only concerned with who is going to pay the owner interest on the 20 acres they have been charging me for. Have I mentioned how much I do not like continental,.
She said that my owner interest kicked in when they had 150% of something. I have no idea what this woman is talking about. Believe me I am not trying to throw away money. Continental is saying that I have the responsibility of putting my mineral acres under lease. The woman at Kelly energy said that because continental has not recorded my mineral acres in 160-95, 160-96 in the Ndrin I would have had to go to the courthouse to discover that this acre was not under lease. I live in Arkansas. Ugh. American eagle and hunt have been much easier to deal with. Thanks so much.
First, Continental does not record your acres. The 150% the woman was talking about was the recovery of your part of the drilling cost plus a 50% of actual cost of drilling and completing the well penalty. In that area, Continental, if they had done as they were supposed to do, should have been paying you a 16% landowner royalty from the very first barrel. Continental by law can't properly seek a risk penalty without offering you a lease offer and if you won't lease, a chance to participate. Too bad you have already leased it, someone else might have paid alot more to have the working interest on that acre, under an already producing well, a no brainer. You might have been able to participate in that acre yourself. Water under the bridge now.
Kelly Energy had done a spreadsheet that showed the leases on my mineral acres-in 160-95, 160-96 madeline put (no lease on NDRIN). anyway, the huge bills should stop. thanks.