Wow, over 600 calls!
I may not have a lot of talents in life, but not being able to hang up on those I don’t wish to speak with is definitely not one of them!
I inherited property in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma around 2011. A few years later, in mid 2017, I got about a dozen offer letters or so leading up to the drilling of 4 new horizontal wells through my property. Of course the offer letters were coming in while the legal notices were coming in the mail - Well permits, increased density, etc. Being a novice, I then did all I could to educate myself (and thank God for finding this forum along the way) and learned quite a bit about horizontal drilling technology. I’d read and re-read several times, the language in the notices I’d get in the mail and search a lot online to understand as best I could about the process.
Regarding the offer letters, I just made copies of them for future reference and filed them where they belong - in the trash. If I’d sold my mineral rights, I’d also be looking in the mirror today and see, staring back, the biggest fool who ever walked on God’s green Earth.
I have to laugh when I recall reading a post a few weeks ago from someone here on this forum (I’ll be nice and not disclose his user name) who posted, in part the following: “Why I always chuckle at the people that say never sell when owners get high priced offers and say the mineral companies must know something we don’t”.
Fast forward to today eight years later, and even after the standard decline in production, whenever I get my monthly royalty direct deposit I’ll take a glance at some of those great ‘offers’ as a reminder of why I don’t listen to bad advice, and re-read the above quote, to have a few laughs as I sip my morning coffee!
Oh, and by the way, I was just reading an article about how Devon Energy has been having success with refracking to stimulate depleting wells, reducing costs over drilling new wells. I believe I remember the article staying that’s happening in your neck of the woods especially due to favorable shale structure or something to that effect. That just more to think about as technology continually advances.
Too bad your family members didn’t heed your advice. There’s no ‘free lunch’ and despite the language in those offer letters, those companies aren’t offering money out of the goodness of their hearts, to help you pay the bills, or take care of ‘unforeseen medical expenses’. Or, like this gem I saw in one of mine: “Take advantage of the low 15% capital gains tax rate on the sale of your minerals before it returns to 30 percent. Royalty payments are taxed at your normal tax rate of 25-35%. Selling now could save you tens of thousands of dollars!” That was good for a hearty, choke on your drink laugh! Selling now could what??
Again, congratulations! Go out and buy yourself a steak dinner tonight!