Royalties Not Paid as Promised

Received Oil and Gas Division Orders for Wahoo State Units 12N1 #1H, 12N2 #2H and 12N11 #11H located in Pecos County Texas which I signed and returned to PRI Operating, LLC on 2/8/2021. Talked to there representative to advise that documents had been mailed. The rep said that if the documents where received before the end of the month, they would release payment on or before the 25th day of the following month. It’s been 6 months and on royality payments received. Are there remedies other than legal that I might explore?

Did you send the documents by ‘certified’ mail with a receipt to be signed by the company representative?..if not they can throw them in the trash and say they never received them. Always send such mail certified so that company personnel has to sign for it. Clint

Clint is correct. First contact the Division Order analyst to inquire if they received the documents. If not, send again by certified mail return receipt. It is possible the wells were sold which always delays things, so another reason to contact the DO analyst.

Tell them they are late paying you and owe interest under the Texas Natural Resources Code.

I finally made contact with a PRI Operating Svcs, LLC representative regarding release of royalty payments promised. The Rep said that there might be an issue with my legal ownership to mineral rights covered by the lease I have with them. The Rep said they have a landsman researching to confirm my ownership. Should I send a copy of the mineral deed that I inherited from my grandfather with other supporting documents, wait to hear back from them, or seek legal advice.

Yes, Send them copies of everything that you have and ask what else they need. Send by certified mail return receipt.

Then, see how they respond and you may need to consult an attorney.

Thanks M Barnes I will mall documents I have certified mail receipt requested.

I am in an almost identical situation. In my case one deed transfer from many decades ago has a math error (This gal gave away her shares, 1/3 to each of three persons. but the wording indicated she had given away 1/3 of the TOTAL mineral interests, not just a third of her shares). The operating company will not send payments until EVERYONE signs a stipulation agreeing to the obvious error, one is holding out for some reason, maybe hoping the rest of us will pay him to sign it. The operator is happy, he gets to keep the cash. By experts on this forum, there is no way to force the issue other than going to a court, which would be expensive and time consuming.

Today you own 100% of nothing. Round up the others & get them to share proportionately in the expense of getting your share of something. If it was a simple mistake it will have a simple resolution.

The hold out is keeping HIS SHARE from being paid as well, last check I did he has over $800,000.00 due upon signing. I figure he will get hungry someday and realize the rest of us are not going away any time soon and he can have a quick payday by just signing…

Doubt money is the object with them. You will find out when you and your group file something. Remember, they have to pay attorney’s fees to support their case as well. From the posts, I have a really good idea who the money is more important to. Hundreds of millions of dollars in suspense for reasons just like this. But good luck.

You are probably correct with that reasoning. Those two wells have produced in the first 6 months of 2021, 246657 barrels of oil and 396892 MCF of gas. No matter how you see it, that is a LOT of oil and gas in my books!

All the more reason to take action.

I am now being told the holdup is “standard administrative processing” and now that it involves “amendment/extension of the original lease is being pursued” Clue me in, can one request such things as a change of the lease after the well has been in production? Seems odd to me. Maybe I should be pursuing the same thing? They have now held it up for over 10 months! As you can tell from my tone, it is very frustrating.

It is definitely frustrating. Anyone that has ever owned minerals knows how you feel. Operators take advantage of ill written rules or laws. And of course the laws are written by lawyers for that very reason. Good Luck Don.

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