Ritchie County, WV - Oil & Gas Discussion archives

I recently learned that I have a percentage of mineral rights to 200 plus acres in southern Ritchie county. There are several old, vertical wells on the acreage that produce a small royalty. Is this area of the county likely to have new, horizontal wells drilled in the future in the Marcellus shale? Can old wells be reworked and turned horizontal? It seems like the current horizontal drilling is east of this area.

Mr. Whitmore, I think eventually they will get to that area with horizontal wells. I hope so, I have some interest in that area as well. Old wells can be reworked too as you suggest, I think the company holding the lease wants to keep it alive. It.might. be a few years before they come that way but it is proven to have oil and gas. Right now they are drilling where they have hopes of wet gas which sells for more than the dry gas.

Hi Nancy....sorry for late response. We are in Union District.

I have another question for the group. My family created a company that negotiated leases on behalf of the family. In one particular case, they signed a lease and wells were drilled. They assigned the lease to the driller and got on override. The driller then sold the wells to an operator and retained the deep rights. Here is my questions. If the surface well operators shut-in the wells and voids the lease, do the deep rights go back to the family or does the assignee still have negotiating power on those deep rights? I hope I explained this right and it makes sense.

A follow on question would be if those Deep Rights stay with the person the family company assigned the lease to, once someone comes in and starts horizontal drilling, does the family company get an override on those wells too?

Thanks

I am not a lawyer, and have not seen the documents you are describing, but unless there is more to it in the leases, I would think that the lease would need to be in effect, wells in production (however defined) for the assignor to have any rights that he may have retained. Have you seen these documents, including the assignment?

No. The lease was done in the 50s. I live in VA which makes finding some of this information difficult.

Hi, I am a mineral rights owner in Ritchie, and part of my property is in a "split" lease with me retaining the leasing rights for the deep sands. I am not a lawyer, but my understanding, at least with the contract on my property, is that the !/2 rights that I don't own would still be good. I have the say in leasing the deep rights, but the royalties and leasing bonus would still be split. The shallow wells have continued to produce at least a small return, so the old leases are still in effect on my property. The "other" half on my property is split between several heirs, but the totals could still be substantial for them as the total lease is for more than 300 acres.

Michael Wolfrey, if you look above this space to the Discussion Forum topics, the second one up is RITCHIE COUNTY RECORDS ONLINE SYSTEM.

If you read that, you'll see how to get to the Ritchie records. The main thing to remember is to use Internet Explorer as your web browser. Then go to www.ritchiecountywv.com These are the 1985- records. If you are on Internet Explorer, there should be an icon, top row on right, saying Right Click. if you right click on it, you can download software on your desktop to search the old records. For the newer records, you can create an account and pay with a credit card to download and print. Viewing is free. When I last checked a few weeks ago they did not have the download capability for the old records yet but viewing is still free, and you could order by mail I think. You can call Ritchie County Clerk's office at 1-304-659-3506 and listen to the menu for the County Clerk, then listen for the general information selection. Hours are 8 AM to 4 PM M-F.

If you have trouble figuring out the site, after you get it download, please ask. They have a grantor-grantee index with grantors on the left, grantees on the right, and the name you are searching in the middle. There is an index to the index pages, Select your first letter of the name, for example W, and from the drop down to the right go past 0, 1, 2, ... to 9, A. Choose A, and this is where you find what index page the name you want can be found. Sort of awkward but it works. Please ask if you have questions. I just tried it and the index part to the index doesn't appear. You can still see the index pages but hard to use. Please call them and ask. If you have a book and page number you can look up deeds, leases, etc.

HEY EVERYONE, WE HAVE PERCENTAGES IN PARCEL NUMBER 3-15-18, 3-15-19, AND 3-14-34, I DONT KNOW IF THAT HELPS. HOWEVER WE ARE WONDERING IF THEY HAVE BEGAN DRILLING YET. ITS IN THE CLAY DISTRICT OF RITCHIE COUNTY AND WE RECEIVED AN OFFER TO BUY THE RIGHTS FOR ELEVEN THOUSAND. WE DONT WANT TO SELL, JUST WANDERING HOW WE CAN FIND OUT HOW OTHERS ARE DOING NEAR US AND IF THEY HAVE BEGAN DRILLING OR ARE ABOUT TO IN THAT AREA.

Hi Rob, if you know what your parcels look like on the map, the area of those maps is about where 085-09962 is on this map

Not saying that your acreage is in that well, just that it is the general area.

See if that makes sense. If you are not quite sure where your parcels are, ask again and I can look a little closer.

That area is pretty active now. Not a lot of drilling, but a lot of it is near there.

IT WOULD NOT ALLOW ME TO OPEN THE MAP, DOES THIS MEAN WE WERE SKIPPED OR JUST NOT DRILLED ON YET.ALSO FOUND SOMETHING THAT SAYS MINERAL TAX PARCEL NUMBER 9999-0039-1000-0000, 9999-0039-1001-0000

Bad link, sorry. Go to page 3 of this discussion, to July 12, 2015 to sometht I wrote then with the link. Different number because that question was about a different area of the county. The tax ticket parcel number you listed is for mineral right interest, not the surface. You can call the Ritchie County Assessor’s office and ask for a tax map for those two màp numbers, Clay map 14 and Clay map 15. I think the price is between $3 and $5 per map. One way they support their work, selling maps. Then you can use the landmarks on the maps to get closer on the interactive map on the website of the WV Office of Oil and Gas. Hope that helps,

Our family inherited what appears to be about 20% of the mineral rights to a 446-acre tract in the Clay District, Stewarts Run area, known as the former W H Moore Farm. My great aunt passed away in January of 2013 yet we have not received any checks. I am sure there are old wells on the property and I believe they are still active; while at this stage I do not expect the checks to amount to very much, shouldn't we at least be getting something? Or is the process just typically this slow? I apologize for my ignorance as I have no clue about these dealings. I know my dad has a lawyer who is supposedly working with the company (at this point, I'm not sure what company it is and will have to ask him) but it seems like a lot of time has passed without any definitive answers. I have located the 3 separate deeds on the Ritchie County records site and have verified that they belong to us. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed? Also, does anyone know if there has been any recent activity in that part of the Clay District? How do I find out where the W H Moore Farm is located in the Clay District? Thanks in advance for any info. I've already learned a great deal just by combing through the comments and discussion forum.

Very familiar with the Stewarts run area and used to deer hunt there. Question: Did you as an heir, contact the company who has the leases on your interests. Once you prove you are the rightful heir, you should get any royalty due you. The company will hold checks, if an heir passes away and no one comes forward showing paperwork that would transfer ownership.

Also need to notify the Ritchie County Clerk’s office, ask for the probate clerk who is Sandra. She can help with that part. DT is correct about the companies, and sometimes they want you to clear things with the county first. I can see if I can help with that farm name later.

Hi Rob, the Weekly Report for last week had documents related to a new permit in the general area that you asked about. Here is the link permit 085-10272

See if you can see anything familiar there. Anyway there is a lot of activity in the general area.

N D Moore, if you go the the link WV oil and gas maps and put in 085-03-2963 or 085-08345 you will see the area where your interest is, I think. Those two are not being operated now but at lease you can see where they are. I think the farm was on area that is now in Clay map 24 and Clay map 29 areas. You can contact the Ritchie Assessor's office for these tax maps. If you want a historical map, you can contact the Ritchie County Historical Society website for Ritchie County Historical Society shop and go to the bottom of the page for the old maps. I found William Moore farm on the northern half (the Ritchie map is in two pieces), on the section marked J-17, in the southeast (lower left hand) corner of that part of the map. There is an EQT well not too far to the east of this area, and I expect they will be moving westward in the next few years if the wells to the east are good enough.

You can go here WV wells search database and select Ritchie for the county then put Moore in the farm name and see what you find. If a well says Active Well there is probably still production, and it lists the operator. See if that helps.

For the county contact, here is the link for the Assessor's office, for the maps. Ritchie County assessor office

The same phone number will get you the county clerk's office where you can ask for the probate clerk if you need assistance with getting things transferred that way. Sandra is very helpful.

Please ask if you need more help or if the links don't work.

Oh, another link, if you find a well number (085-xxxxx) you might be able to find a lot of information including a map, at this site Ritchie downloads site for well and permit info

Have fun!

I have a percentage of OMG rights for acreage in southern Ritchie county. I became aware of this in 2015 and last August contacted two production companies that have active wells on the acreage. One company was very prompt to issue payment for the accrued royalties. However, the other company has not responded to two letters I sent following my initial phone conversations with the owner. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Is there a WV state agency that I can contact?

Thanks

Paul

Who was the company who did not respond? Also how long has the property had producing wells? You might want to check with other heirs to make sure they paid you all that was owed. Just saying. Nancy M should be on here soon to give you more specifics on records or contacts.

Hi Paul, it could be that the company who has not responded is dragging its feet too much. Some of them do. Some have rather terrible reputations.

As far as contacting a state agency, you might try the State Attorney General's office. However, you might need an attorney. There is a law office in Harrisville, county seat of Ritchie County, Windom Law offices, who are local and good. If your wells are vertical wells, the revenue has been pretty tiny due to the low price of natural gas, and some of the companies are doing things like ignoring their royalty owners and like starting to take out deductions that they shouldn't.

As DT said, if you feel comfortable sharing the name of the company who is ignoring you, somebody might have more ideas.